Here in Orygun we have to pay a Columbia River endorsement to fish any river system that drains into the Columbia if we want to fish for Steelhead/Salmon, regardless of whether or not we plan on keeping any.
Why in the world does WA still have paper-only fishing licenses?
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
Again down here if you want to fish for salmon or steelhead, you have to buy a punch card.
I am always amazed that I can buy a non resident fishing license for a year in the Northwest Territories or Manitoba for less than my annual Oregon fishing license. In fact I can buy a license for both territories for less than Oregon…
Here in Washington, the first catch card comes free with your license. You can buy additional cards if you fill up your first card. It’s kind of worthless if you never plan to retain any fish. If you mail it in to WDFW after your annual license expires, they get data off of it if you retain fish. If you mail in an empty card, they get data that maybe you didn’t fish much or you aren’t much of an angler.
SF
SSPey
loco alto!
I never went electronic in Oregon. A bunch of my friends regret doing so and now need to go into an ODFW office to revert to paper.
One glitch is the e-system uses GPS to autofill your location when tagging fish. When fishing a river mouth to the ocean, the autofill gets it wrong every time, the difference between legal vs illegal take. It also sometimes tags more than one fish at a time, but you can’t untag, no good when the limit is one (e.g., halibut) and you gotta contact ODFW to get the extra tagged fish removed (or get a ticket). For me, it is a hassle to have to fiddle with a phone / phone settings when going fishing.
One glitch is the e-system uses GPS to autofill your location when tagging fish. When fishing a river mouth to the ocean, the autofill gets it wrong every time, the difference between legal vs illegal take. It also sometimes tags more than one fish at a time, but you can’t untag, no good when the limit is one (e.g., halibut) and you gotta contact ODFW to get the extra tagged fish removed (or get a ticket). For me, it is a hassle to have to fiddle with a phone / phone settings when going fishing.
It's returning.
Wait....what?
Just repeating what a game warden told us in the ‘90s. We boated a couple of chinook and were digging around for a pen when they came up and told us we had to fill it out before bringing the fish aboard.
Maybe that was never actually the case, as I just read WAC 220-310-020 and it doesn’t seem to say that. Only language I could find about when is on their website and says “After you catch a fish or crab, you are required to enter that catch on your catch record card before continuing to fish.”
I also found the wac speaks as if digital catch records and apps are a thing. “Anglers using the electronic catch record card must record harvest immediately. If no crab are retained, mobile application users must record no harvest by the end of the season through the department-authorized mobile application.”
They had planned to implement it for this license year, but the vendor underperformed and they terminated the contract and it’s currently under litigation. And with current budget situations it might be delayed even longer since they do not have a vendor in place yet.
Personally, I am ok with paper license. Local New England states all have on-line purchase and you can download and/or print. I always save a copy and then print as I never take my phone on the water. First thing is that I don't want any calls/texts/etc. and the next issue is the lack of waterproofing for the phone.
THIS! This has bugged me for years. If you want me to return my paper catch record you better give me a stamped envelope or it's not gonna happen. They tried to blacklist those that didn't return it (ie me) a few years back, but I'm guessing someone fought that and won. The judge probably laughed at the state attorney.
They would get SO much more participation if it was online. Or on the app! Imagine if you could catch a hatchery brat, bonk it, put it in the cooler and then enter it on the app. You're legal and they get their data ASAP. The data that they supposedly want so bad they were willing to blackmail us.
There's absolutely no reason this can't be done and done affordably. Kills me.
Banned user
Steelhead
I live in Illinois and fish in Wisconsin, so just purchased new licenses for both states. Both require that you have a paper copy on hand when you fish. I have both of mine laminated and keep them in my wallet, as they are credit-card sized.
But neither state has salmon or steelhead tags, just daily/weekly limits.
But neither state has salmon or steelhead tags, just daily/weekly limits.
I would take that over a long receipt printed with disappearing ink, if I can't have it on my phone.