This is one of those odd stories that comes across our desk every now and again that involves one of our favorite things and one of our least favorite things — fishing and politics. Apparently the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, bought a state resident hunting and fishing license in Wyoming last year. Cool. A political figure who likes to fish. That’s always a good thing in our opinion because it seems most of the legislation these days is aimed at restricting fishing and hunting privileges. The problem comes in the fact that Cheney was not a resident of Wyoming when said license was purchased.
“Oops.” Or maybe “dagnabit” is the better reaction here. Oops as is in I made a mental mistake or dagnabit, I got caught red-handed trying to save a few bucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never understood why folks being attracted to your fisheries and hunting from out of state have to sign over their first born child to hunt and fish in said states. I’ve fished and hunted in more than 40 states, and I can tell you some state’s out-of-state license prices are ludicrous. But I’ve always erred on the side of caution given that I work in the fishing industry and make sure I’ve bought every applicable out-of-state license way ahead of time.
The gray area (there always seems to be one in politics and fishing) is that she did in fact live in Wyoming and had closed on her house 2 months prior to purchasing the license. However in Wyoming, you have to live there for 365 days before you’re considered a true resident of the state and valid for a resident fishing license. Hmm.
Not sure how one could “accidentally” forget they are not a resident yet. But it seems a little quirky too that if someone has paid a lot of money to finance a house in Wyoming, that they are running some sort of scam just to get good deals on in-state licenses. It’s always a slap in the face when a politician you hope would ally with fishermen gets caught up in something like this. And unfortunately for Ms. Cheney, I hear those folks in Wyoming take their hunting and fishing seriously. Her fine would be $220 for falsifying information on the license, however if she appeals to a judge he could raise it up to $1,000.
To see the original story about this, visit the Wyoming Trib.com website.
