§ 4613 — Fishing tournaments

(a) No person or organization shall hold a fishing tournament on the waters of the State without first obtaining a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Tournaments held on the Connecticut River, excluding Moore and Comerford Reservoirs, that do not utilize an access area in Vermont are not required to obtain a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
(b) A fishing tournament means a contest in which anglers pay a fee to enter and in which the entrants compete for a prize based on the quality or size of the fish they catch. A contest may run multiple days, but the days must be consecutive for that contest to be considered a single event. A tournament that limits the entrants to people below 15 years of age or a tournament held as part of a Special Olympics program shall be exempt from paying the fee required under subsection (d) of this section.
(c) The Commissioner shall adopt rules that establish the procedure for implementation of this section. The rules shall include a provision that an angler may not enter a fish that was caught and confined to an enclosed area prior to the beginning of the tournament.
(d) The Commissioner shall charge a fee based on the number of participants for each permit issued under this section and shall deposit the fee collected into the Fish and Wildlife Fund. Tournaments with up to 25 participants shall pay a fee of $10.00; tournaments with 26 to 50 participants shall pay a fee of $30.00; and tournaments with more than 50 participants shall pay a fee of $100.00. (Added 1991, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; amended 2003, No. 129 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2003, No. 163 (Adj. Sess.), § 15; 2025, No. 47, § 9, eff. July 1, 2025.)