Electronic licenses in Washington next year

[Chucker]

According to this:

E-licenses, Tags Coming For WA Hunters, Anglers In December For Next License Year -

Washington hunters and anglers will soon be able to begin storing their licenses and tags as well as reporting their catches and kills on their smartphone, just like Oregon sportsmen have for several years.

nwsportsmanmag.com

It will be available next year. I anticipate many issues, so will probably still get a paper license until those are worked out.

 

[offensivename]

Now Oregon just needs to build its own FishOregon app and I won't need to get the stupid PDF I can never find anything in.

 

[Stonedfish]

Now Oregon just needs to build its own FishOregon app and I won't need to get the stupid PDF I can never find anything in.

Hopefully they don’t use the same people who developed the WDFW app….
SF

 

[Evan B]

Took a couple years to iron out the bugs with Oregon's but I'm a big fan of our license system here. About time WA got with the times. I'm surprised we beat them to it by as many years as we did.

 

[ffb]

Idaho and Montana have had e-licenses for a while too and it works super well in my experience. Better late than never I guess!

 

[JimTravers¤£a!!Travers]

I don't need a E LICEBSE!!! AINT FORCIN ME TO GRT ONE!!!

 

[up2nogood]

Idaho and Montana have had e-licenses for a while too and it works super well in my experience. Better late than never I guess!

Seems like several years for both . I have an app now for Utah , Idaho ,and Montana . You can get a credit card type license for Idaho if you prefer .

 

[JLT]

I think that’s great news, we may just be entering the modern age.

Once that’s out of the way hopefully they’ll allocate funds to have people to check em on an open skagit

 

[troutpocket]

I wonder if catch record cards will remain on paper?

 

[Evan B]

I wonder if catch record cards will remain on paper?

Ours are all e tagged in Oregon if you use electronic license. One of the best parts of it in my opinion. Don't need to know river numbers, have a pen, or try to write on wet paper

Both my fish catch cards and hunting tags all on the same app

 

[Evan B]

Here's what it shows when you check your tagged fishes

 

[_WW_]

I am not holding out much hope. Right now the fish Washington app defaults to a map of the entire planet.

 

[Fourbtgait]

I am not holding out much hope. Right now the fish Washington app defaults to a map of the entire planet.

Mine consistently defaults to the last area in Wa I was researching.

 

[Shad]

Catch reporting is the real benefit to electronic licensing. I'm all for it.

 

[_WW_]

Catch reporting is the real benefit to electronic licensing. I'm all for it.

Hopefully it will end the $12 charge for a second catch record card after the first one is full.

 

[clarkman]

about time!

I think OR's is great! Initially was skeptical, but I think they're getting it dialed in.

 

[Bruce Baker]

I am not holding out much hope. Right now the fish Washington app defaults to a map of the entire planet.

It was doing the same thing on my iPhone. I had downloaded the new MyWDFW app and there is an option to go to FishWA. When I did that, FishWA opened, but the map never appeared. It seemed that "merging files" was on a continual merging loop. I attempted this a few times with no success and then the last time, it froze the app. So I uninstalled and then re-installed the FishWA app and now it brings up the last area in WA that I was looking at.

 

[cody-]

I just opened my FishWA to see where it would put me. I thought it was just giving me a blank screen. Then I zoomed out and realized it was just real zoomed in on the Gulf of Guinea, off the west coast of Africa

 

[Yard Sale]

As a guy who does long floats in remote places and doesn't harvest fish I'll be sticking to paper. Wardens seem to be cool with printed screenshots thankfully.

Sounds like WDFW is also bringing back the CR endorsement tag.

 

[skyriver]

About time! I think Oregon's works pretty well AFTER you actually buy the license.
For us non-residents that buy a 1, 2 or 3 day license, there is a bit of a lag between buying the license and it showing in the app.
I've seen it take up to 30 minutes to update/sync to the app.

Hopefully Washington's will be able to do everything truly within the app.

Regarding the Fish Washington app...I think it works pretty well EXCEPT when you first open it. I takes WAY too long doing its "Downloading Geodatabase..." thing. We're talking like dial-up too long even when on great wifi or 5G. That tells me it's on their end, not mine.

I don't mind having to hit the location button, but the download thing is ridiculous. You can't click on your body of water until the download it done. So annoying.
I'm on the latest version and I've given feedback...well, I haven't given feedback because when I try it says "Error sending feedback. Please try again later"!! Yeah, I'm not gonna try again later.

As annoying as it is, it's still better than having to carry paper in the rain.