NPS Senior Pass
The price will go up on AUGUST 28th to $80 its official
Forum Discussion
pnichols wrote:
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Now ..... to make your situation complete ..... if only you (and I) could once a year, or better still once for life, buy a NATIONAL FISHING LICENSE...
Been discussed many times by various fishing organizations. Went nowhere. States are not interested.
The revenue from state fishing and hunting licenses funds that state's wildlife agency. With a national license there is no practical way to allocate the fees back to where you actually fished or hunted. For example, A Nevada resident buys a national fishing license in California, then fishes for two weeks in Colorado and two weeks in Wyoming, then snowbirds in Arizona and does more fishing. Who gets the money from the license? How do you determine how much goes where?
Most states have reciprocal agreements with adjacent states on common waterways. You can use a CA or AZ license on either shore to fish the Colorado River where it forms the state line, and the regulations (size and bag limits, et al) are the same. Same for the Columbia River between OR and WA. I am sure the regulars here could cite similar agreements for other states.
You are paying a national 'fee' of a sort anytime you buy any fishing tackle. A national excise tax on tackle (The Dingell-Johnson Act) is reallocated back to the states for fisheries and watershed restoration. However, it does not necessarily go back to the state where the tackle was purchased. It goes into a fund administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and individual states apply for matching funds grants for projects. This fund is so little known it has remained surprisingly apolitical. The FWS has been reasonably fair in allocating funds to all states. The big states have not been dominating the allocation process.
Many states now have online purchases for fishing licenses and a digital license can be stored on your phone. Really handy -- I may not always have my paper license on me, but I nearly always have my phone with me. I can just show the e-copy to the game warden and he/she will accept it as proof.
