Why in the world does WA still have paper-only fishing licenses?

Josh

Josh

Dead in the water
Staff member
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It's 2025, everything is on our phones. But I still have to remember to bring my paper fishing license with me and move it between packs/pfds/etc every time I go fishing. Why isn't this fixed yet? Other states have mobile app fishing licenses (as well as harvest cards). We're one of the leading tech industry states in the country and we can't figure this out?

The rules changed in 2023 to expressly allow electronic/mobile licenses. But we seem to have made no headway?

wdfw.wa.gov

WDFW Mobile Licensing and Electronic Harvest Reporting

wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov

Blegh. Someone tell me I'm wrong and just missed seeing a button in the fishWA app or something.
 
Josh said:
It's 2025, everything is on our phones. But I still have to remember to bring my paper fishing license with me and move it between packs/pfds/etc every time I go fishing. Why isn't this fixed yet? Other states have mobile app fishing licenses (as well as harvest cards). We're one of the leading tech industry states in the country and we can't figure this out?

The rules changed in 2023 to expressly allow electronic/mobile licenses. But we seem to have made no headway?

wdfw.wa.gov

WDFW Mobile Licensing and Electronic Harvest Reporting

wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov

Blegh. Someone tell me I'm wrong and just missed seeing a button in the fishWA app or something.
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Agreed! And I keep my license in my hat and a few weeks in the sun makes all of the pages blank!
 
This question was brought up at yesterday’s NOF meeting. WDFW staff said they are currently working with a vendor and that it is coming, but they wouldn’t commit to when or how soon.
SF
 
When I was checked last fall I brought this up with the game warden. I told him my Idaho and Oregon licenses were digital and on my phone and why aren't Washington's. He said they are working on it and it should be a thing within a couple years. I don't know if they have elementary students working on this stuff for them, but it seems silly it would take this long. I also brought up why I can report my hunting harvest online but not my fishing. That one doesn't make sense to me either, but I suspect there is a good reason I'm just not aware of.
 
I believe you are correct. I was expecting this year 2025 license to be electronic but evidently noooooo. I still keep my receipt in an email folder in case I ever do forget to bring it (which has not happened yet, but I have forgotten my parking pass, leaving it the other car. 😡)
….also take a photo of my license too.
 
I can't believe Oregon beat them to this by many years. Our app here had a few hiccups along the way, but I don't miss paper at all. I especially love being able to just punch in my salmon/steelhead/halibut catches vs writing on wet paper.
 
Well, I'm shocked. Of the three states, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, I just assumed you guys had digital licenses before we did in Idaho and Oregon. Shocked, I tell you, shocked. 😲

(To be perfectly honest, I don't always carry my phone when fishing so I printed a copy of my Oregon license and keep it in my wallet.)
 
DKL said:
I don't know if they have elementary students working on this stuff for them, but it seems silly it would take this long.
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The way it was explained to me, when I complained about the first version of the Fish Washington app, is that it's hard to find quality vendors that are willing to do quality work for WDFW budget prices.

I would be ok with a digital license over the stupid reciepts I have to rebuy multiple times a year, but what I'd really like is some kind of durable official sticker I could stick on my driver's license like my car tabs that shows what license/endorsements I've paid for and a digital catch record card. The last especially. No more having to go to Fred Meyer or wherever and wait in line to get a new one, no more having to hang on to an increasingly bloody and smelly receipt that I then have to mail in every few weeks, just a nice clean spreadsheet app that I put my catches into. They could even add the option to include a photo of the fish for their bios. Considering catch cards are supposed to be filled out before boating the fish, digital records could in theory have the catch info into the state database, complete with GPS coordinates, before the fish was in the boat as well.
 
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What's really the problem is that WA has a whole bunch of fisheries that are "limited by monitoring data", roughly using their words, and doesn't even try electronic tools for that data collection. The real tragedy is that there is no digital version of our salmon and steelhead reporting card, or pages within the Fish WA app (which collects our exact fishing locations and times and how long we were there!!) , where we can enter all that precious and scarce monitoring data to allow us to open more fisheries in more places for longer.

That's what we should really be angry about, the tools and platforms exist for massive and rich data collection about our fisheries, and WDFW chooses not to try it or use it despite the need for deep monitoring data to "allow fishing".

Combine the Fish WA app with some incentives tools, and we would immediately have all the monitoring data that we could possibly need. Instead, WDFW wastes dollars funding some poor sack to sit in their car at a boat ramp all day and talk to 1-2 people. Then closes, or never even opens, great fisheries with thousands of returning hatchery fish because there are no funds for monitoring data collection. So ridiculous in a world overwhelmed by data.
 
J Watrous said:
The way it was explained to me, when I complained about the first version of the Fish Washington app, is that it's hard to find quality vendors that are willing to do quality work for WDFW budget prices.
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I mean, OR did it successfully. ODFW can't be paying so much more to the vendors, can they?

Or maybe the scope to build it is far more complex because of WA's crazy fisheries laws.
 
In Montana, we definitely have digital licenses to include YNP permits (Yellowstone is essentially Montana regardless of state borders). But it can have its drawbacks. A curling buddy of mine is a die hard hunter and several years ago when he was still a Montana Highway Patrolman, he got cited for hunting without a license during a damage hunt. As he was walking back to his vehicle as evening settled in, a warden asked to see his license. Of course he had one, but it was on his phone which he inadvertently left in his vehicle. No grace given, he was cited and it cost him a $200+ fine.
 
They can check if you have a license if they are within cell phone range. I have been checked when I only hada catch card with me. No idea where my license was ad why they weren't together. No issue. They checked and told me to get a re-print. I'm not sure if they ran my name or Wild ID #.
They were quite kind and reasonable.
 
charles sullivan said:
They can check if you have a license if they are within cell phone range. I have been checked when I only hada catch card with me. No idea where my license was ad why they weren't together. No issue. They checked and told me to get a re-print. I'm not sure if they ran my name or Wild ID #.
They were quite kind and reasonable.
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Yep, when I recently got checked for my license they checked it by my name and birthdate. It was in my wallet so I didn’t have to take off my pack, striking basket and jacket to actually show them a copy of it.
SF
 
So my experience was a bit interesting. First off, I have been fishing this river for at least 20 years and never seen a WA warden on it. I drove up river to fish for the day and saw one of my favorite runs was empty so I pulled over and parked to fish it. As I got out of the truck I realized my license was still attached to my waders at camp and I was wet wading this particular morning. I literally thought to myself, "I'll be alright, I've never seen a warden out here". As I was nearly finished in the run and getting to the juicy boulder water, I see a warden drive by, stop, and come back. I thought you have got to be kidding. When he got out I told him "this is f'n classic, the one time I forget it, you show up". Anyway, I had my hunting license in the truck which showed I had a fishing license so he gave me a pass. But he warned me that I must have my catch card on my person while fishing. Two days later I saw him again in another spot at a take out and he asked for my license again, even though this time I wasn't fishing and was simply shuttling a friend's rig. I reminded him that he had previously checked me. He didn't care and I thought that was weird, but he ended up giving several people at that time tickets for not having their catch cards. So whether you have digital copies of your license or your actual license, you need to have your actual catch card on you (at least if you are fishing where recordable fish reside).
 
DKL said:
So my experience was a bit interesting. First off, I have been fishing this river for at least 20 years and never seen a WA warden on it. I drove up river to fish for the day and saw one of my favorite runs was empty so I pulled over and parked to fish it. As I got out of the truck I realized my license was still attached to my waders at camp and I was wet wading this particular morning. I literally thought to myself, "I'll be alright, I've never seen a warden out here". As I was nearly finished in the run and getting to the juicy boulder water, I see a warden drive by, stop, and come back. I thought you have got to be kidding. When he got out I told him "this is f'n classic, the one time I forget it, you show up". Anyway, I had my hunting license in the truck which showed I had a fishing license so he gave me a pass. But he warned me that I must have my catch card on my person while fishing. Two days later I saw him again in another spot at a take out and he asked for my license again, even though this time I wasn't fishing and was simply shuttling a friend's rig. I reminded him that he had previously checked me. He didn't care and I thought that was weird, but he ended up giving several people at that time tickets for not having their catch cards. So whether you have digital copies of your license or your actual license, you need to have your actual catch card on you (at least if you are fishing where recordable fish reside).
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Even if you don’t plan to keep a fish?
Does this river have species of fish in it that don’t require a catch card to retain? If so, how would they determine what species you are fishing for?
SF
 
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