Landowners with smaller amounts of property would soon be able to hunt and fish on their own land without a permit.

Under a bill advanced by a Senate committee in the state capital this afternoon.

Verona Republican Jay Williams is hoping his Senate Bill five will please some sportsmen uptight about a law passed just last year.

Last spring, legislators passed Senate Bill 241.

Part of the law requires Kentuckians to have a permit to fish or hunt on their own property.

If the property is less than five acres.

Now, just three days into the 2024 session, a repeal of that land threshold is gaining ground.

The bill itself has only six words that are change, and these were six words that were put into a very large bill at the end of the last session.

And there was some confusion about five acres.

Is was the hunting and the fishing limited to ten acre farms?

That is not clear.

There's a legal definition.

There's a popular understanding.

And so this just takes it back to what the language has been.

Essentially, I don't know.

I could say forever for a couple of hundred years, maybe since it was first passed.

But I do expect that there is going to be additional legislation to clarify exactly what we're talking about.

And likely there'll be a difference between hunting and fishing in terms of the amount of acreage because there are different situations.

I believe that it will take us back to what the popular understanding has been, which is you can fish on your one acre pond, on your four acre piece of property without requiring a license.

The committee adopted a revised version of his Senate Bill five.

The change would make the bill go into law immediately after final passage.