Why in the world does WA still have paper-only fishing licenses?
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
Trout Trekker
Steelhead
Then there are old guys like me who still like their paper licenses - just finished a twelve day trip without a phone, I don't carry one anywhere. Grew up in a more self-reliant time when everyday living didn't require a tether to the world. 
Porter2
Legend
Yeah but having a phone and service for when you kinda go off trail working your way to water and it starts getting dark and you can just pull out your phone and retrace your steps back….. in addition to leaving foot/stick/dirt/sand markers (always) It can get dark on you so fast out in the wild woods …..Think a lot of people don’t realize that. Plus compass. 
Yeah but having a phone and service for when you kinda go off trail working your way to water and it starts getting dark and you can just pull out your phone and retrace your steps back….. in addition to leaving foot/stick/dirt/sand markers (always) It can get dark on you so fast out in the wild woods …..Think a lot of people don’t realize that. Plus compass.
Yeah, it's the whole "comes out of a printer on a long roll" part that's meaningful. It'd be too big of an asspain to individually waterproof 18-24" strips by hand.
Bruce Baker
Life of the Party
I get a yearly non-resident Florida saltwater license. I used to get it in-person when I visited, but I have used both the FWC's website and app. I get a renewal reminder and if so desired, I get my licensed renewed each year automatically. For novelty reasons, I have also bought a hard card. So there are three options, I can print out a paper copy, use the app, or use the hard card. I will probably not get a hard card in the future as they doubled the price this year.
Bruce,
Do annual Florida licenses all expire on 12/31 or one year from the date of purchase?
I’ve can’t recall the reason why Washington came up with a 3/31 expiration date. Anyone know?
It seems it should be the end of the year or June 30th when the new regulations become effective.
SF
Steelhead season is the reason. Winter steelhead season, in terms of harvest, begins in December (but can include November as well) of one calendar year and ends in March (or April) of the next calendar year. Having the fishing licensing year begin April 1 and go to March 31 does a better job of capturing the full season's data. This mattered back when 50:50 treaty - non-treaty harvest sharing was still a thing. After Boldt, it took WDG an extra full year to provide the tribes with the non-treaty steelhead catch data, whereas the treaty tribes were using the state's commercial catch daily reporting mechanism. That has become sort of irrelevant now that the tribes report their catch data whenever they want, if they want to. And since there is no non-treaty harvest of wild steelhead any longer, and the harvest of hatchery winter steelhead is down to a trickle, the original reasoning for switching to the April to March catch reporting and licensing year is superfluous.
They absolutely do, but most of that sort of tax revenue goes to fund the programs at current levels; not innovations or improvements. All states do that.
My point is that if we replaced all the regressive taxes on discretionary spending with a reasonable, fair income tax, the government (and the citizens!) would know much more reliably how much revenue will be collected, and therefore how much can be spent on things like education, infrastructure or even licensing systems that don't hearken back to the stone age.
To be clear, this only works if all state sales and use taxes are eliminated. Otherwise, to what I suspect might be your point, it would just become an additional tax burden and would solve nothing.
Regardless of how you feel about income tax versus sales taxes, the states with income taxes seem to have better, more modern licensing systems. That's probably all I needed to say, though I will add that I enjoy visiting states with little or no sales tax. Makes my vacation dollars go farther and encourages me to spend more in the local communities.
Great information (that I didn't know). Maybe it's a chicken vs. egg thing, but WDFW's lowland lake season, which starts in April, is their biggest license purchase motivator these days. That also makes April an ideal month for renewal from a management perspective.
The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase 38% soon. Democratic legislators have voted to advance Senate Bill 5583, which raises the cost of these licenses for the first time since 2011, according to The Center Square.
mynorthwest.com
Hunting and fishing licenses in the state may be going up significantly - MyNorthwest.com
The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase significantly soon.
mynorthwest.com
Does Oregon’s digital punchcard also capture the GPS location when you enter a catch on it?
SF
SF
38% over 15 years isn't a whole lot considering the cumulative rate of inflation since 2011 is about 42%.The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase 38% soon. Democratic legislators have voted to advance Senate Bill 5583, which raises the cost of these licenses for the first time since 2011, according to The Center Square.
Hunting and fishing licenses in the state may be going up significantly - MyNorthwest.com
The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase significantly soon.
DKL
Steelhead
What I’d like to see is charging non-residents much more than they currently are. I think the only concern I have about substantially increasing the cost for residents is that they consider the effect on the number of people fishing without a license.The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase 38% soon. Democratic legislators have voted to advance Senate Bill 5583, which raises the cost of these licenses for the first time since 2011, according to The Center Square.
Hunting and fishing licenses in the state may be going up significantly - MyNorthwest.com
The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase significantly soon.
Old406Kid
Legend
Maybe a little off topic but IMO this is where high tourism, low population states like Montana that don't have a sales tax are screwing up.
In 2023 5.5 billion tourist dollars were spent in MT. If my math is correct a 6% sales tax would have generated 330 million dollars.
Granted, some of these dollars were spent by residents but I would wager that the higher percentage was spent by visitors from other states or countries. For the record the 2023 population was around 1.1 million which isn't many people to cover all of the infrastructure and other expenses in the 5th largest state in the U.S. I realize that some of the income tax that residents pay is a result of tourism income but the majority of it isn't.
Used to be, I had no problem with periodic fee increases to keep up with inflation, but I'm no fan of this proposal. Since WDFW began throwing recreational fishing under the bus about 6 or 7 years ago now, I'm in the grumpy "defund WDFW" mode. I'd like to see their budget tightened, because that's really the only message the department understands, until they start acting like they understand that continually biting the very hand that feeds them is really bad policy and that they would be far better off providing positive service to primary constituents. They do understand money, and giving them more of it for doing the wrong thing sends exactly the wrong message.The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase 38% soon. Democratic legislators have voted to advance Senate Bill 5583, which raises the cost of these licenses for the first time since 2011, according to The Center Square.
Hunting and fishing licenses in the state may be going up significantly - MyNorthwest.com
The cost of a hunting or fishing license in Washington may increase significantly soon.