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Game and Fish: 450 fishing outfitters and guides registered; advisory committee to report in September
Summary
Director Ashleigh Bruscato told lawmakers the state is in a registration phase for fishing outfitters and guides with 450 registrants to date (about 81'82% residents); the advisory committee will meet in summer and provide a recommendation at the September committee meeting.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department told the Joint Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee on Wednesday that it has collected registration data for fishing outfitters and guides and is still in a data-collection phase, not a regulatory enforcement phase.
"To date we have 450 of them registered," Director Ashleigh Bruscato told the committee. She said roughly 81'82% of those registrants are residents, noting the figure is preliminary as sign-ups continue and two reporting dates (July 15 and January 15) will add usage details to help the advisory committee craft recommendations.
Why it matters
The registration is intended to quantify commercial use of Wyoming waterways and inform whether and how future regulation might be structured. Committee members expressed concern about distinguishing casual recreational users from commercial operators and how enforcement would be managed across the state's dispersed waterways.
Department approach and enforcement
Director Bruscato described the current year as primarily an education and registration period. "If we approach an outfitter and guide that's not registered, the goal will be to get them registered," she said, describing initial compliance work as conversational and outreach-focused rather than punitive. The department noted that increased enforcement duties would affect game wardens and that any future regulatory phase would require careful resource planning, including potential staff or operational adjustments.
Next steps
The advisory committee will reconvene over the summer to review the registration data and present recommendations at September's interim meeting; the department plans to use the July reports to better understand seasonal use patterns and infrastructure implications.
