Pa fishing license

[jeffroey]

seems you can't purchase multiple year trout permits anymore. only one year.

You can. My 5 year license expires in 2024 and I just bought my next 5 year license to take me to 2029. On the website, when you go to the license page, the site defaults to "featured" products. You have to click on the "fishing" tab to see the multi year options.

they sell buttons you can pin to your bag. I buy one every year.

I buy three buttons every year: one for each of my primary kits (a backpack and a hip pack) and one that gets added to my fly tying bench. At least one from my kits gets donated to PA rhodo even if I wire it or hot glue it on.

 

[Swattie87]

Since they removed the requirement to physically display on your person a few years ago, I just store the whole PDF packet you get with the receipt and license documents from your online purchase on my phone. It serves as my camera when fishing, and is always on me anyway.

I carry a small battery recharge pod in my fishing backpack (mostly to recharge my headlamp, which I never remember to do ahead of time until I need it), so even if my phone were to die on an outing (it’s usually in airplane mode consuming very little battery), I’d still have a way to power it back up if asked to by a WCO. Yes, they can look you up to confirm you’re licensed, but I try to not make law enforcement’s job any harder when interacting with them. Been years since I was checked though.

 

[BrookieChaser]

The hard card would be a nice option. I like it better than the buttons. The buttons are cool for nostalgia and/or collecting but I don't believe they were made for using. If so they'd know the crossbar was too short (or the clasp too far away) and you have to bend it all to hell to keep from losing it on the first outing.

Since we're making suggestions, I wish PA would do a 365 day license instead of 1/1-12/31.

 

[lars]

You can. My 5 year license expires in 2024 and I just bought my next 5 year license to take me to 2029. On the website, when you go to the license page, the site defaults to "featured" products. You have to click on the "fishing" tab to see the multi year options.

i don't think that applies for the Trout tag. i have a senior license which doesn't need renewal, however they stopped including the Trout stamp at some point and it needs a new one each year.

 

[Bamboozle]

A couple of things...

The HuntFishPA website is confusing if you login and will only show you eligible items based on your current license status.

To see ALL the options, make sure to click on the red "Remove Filters" button on the left sidebar.

seems you can't purchase multiple year trout permits anymore. only one year.

There are one, three, five & ten year trout permits for all license categories but NO lifetime permits like there are for a Senior Lifetime License which begs the question:

Does this imply that a senior would have a greater life expectancy if they didn't trout fish..? 😉

I would like to see PA follow Virginia in offering an option to purchase a hard plastic card that easily fit in the wallet. I recall paying $5 extra for the card. Retaining digital documents on your phone is a good idea but i often find myself without my phone or with a dead battery but always have my wallet.

PA did offer a hard plastic card/license few years back for an extra fee after the license buttons were reintroduced in 2015. I had one for my three year license back in 2018. It was discontinued after 2022.

Even though it doesn't have to be displayed, I carry reduced sized and laminated copies of my license in various pockets and pouches in my fishing gear. I also keep an extra paper copy with my vehicle registration & proof of insurance as a back-up.

...I buy three buttons every year: one for each of my primary kits (a backpack and a hip pack) and one that gets added to my fly tying bench. At least one from my kits gets donated to PA rhodo even if I wire it or hot glue it on.

I buy five and I received mine already.

I realize they don't replace a license, but I feel it makes it easier for the WCO's to make assumptions as to who might NOT have a valid license.

I also use the old ones as Christmas tree decorations... 😉

In regards to loosing them, I push the "clasp end" of the pin a little closer to the looped end so the point of the pin goes past the end of the clasp. Then I close it and crush the clasp over the point of the pin with pliers.

I haven't lost one since...

 

[albatross]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Bamboozle]

...As an aside, sometimes I carry my PA driver’s license with me when I’m driving, and sometimes don’t, particularly at about 5:00 am most mornings when I drive to the gym and back, which is about 30 miles round trip, and I often leave my wallet with my license at home. I know you supposed to carry your drivers license with you, but I did ask a PA state trouper about not having it with you and he said he didn’t think most state troupers would ticket you as long as they checked online that you had a valid license. I’m not sure what all the local police would say? I hope I never find out differently. 👎

Just make sure if you are stopped, the name you gives matches the one on your license...

True story:

I was living in NYC and back in PA for a friend's wedding when I got nailed for speeding in a Delco township. I forgot my NYS license in my suitcase at my mom's house so I gave the officer my name, DOB, address, etc. and anticipated a speeding ticket in the mail.

Imagine my surprise when I got another ticket for driving without a license!! When I checked my license status (over the phone) with NY DMV, they COULDN'T find me in their system!!!

The mystery was solved in a few minutes when DMV asked me to read the name on my license. It was then I realized the name I gave the DMV person on the phone and the police officer was my shortened first name and my last name. However, the name on my license was; shortened first name, middle initial, last name.

Because of that stupid middle initial which I never used except when I was in elementary school, the PD couldn't verify my license status. Fortunately, the local Delco DJ was understanding and had me FAX a copy of my license and she dropped the 'no license" charges saving me a trip back to PA to produce evidence to the contrary.

A few years later I legally changed my name, permanently shortening my first name and dropping my middle name so now I only have a shortened first name and last name on all of my official documents INCLUDING my birth certificate!!

I don't know if this kind of thing could happen in 2024, but it definitely did and sucked in the late 1980's. 😉

Bam (NMN) Boozle

A fishing related, "don't have my license story":

I was fishing for shad from the bank on the Jersey side of the Delaware opposite the mouth of the Brodhead when I was approached by NJ Fish & Wildlife Officer in a boat and asked to see my license. Stupidly it was in my car, pinned to my vest which was parked in a pull-off about a 1/4 mile from the river up a steep, windy trail.

The officer wasn't enthused about accompanying me back to my car and passed on my offer to walk up and back to retrieve it so he just let me stay fishing and took off in his boat.

What dumb a$$ me didn't realize was at that time, there was no fishing reciprocity between PA & NJ on the Delaware so I WAS technically fishing WITHOUT a license. I image that Fish & Wildlife Officer wouldn't have been so understanding if he walked up that hill with me to find out I had a PA license... 😵

 

[wildtrout2]

Yes, they can look you up to confirm you’re licensed, but I try to not make law enforcement’s job any harder when interacting with them. Been years since I was checked though.

I have never even seen a WCO, let alone been checked by one, in the last 24 years. Probably, because the streams I fish are in the middle of nowhere.

FWIW I had no trouble at all negotiating the HuntFishPa website. Actually, it was more user friendly than I had anticipated.

 

[salmo]

The last time I was checked for a license was about 50 years ago. I was fishing in the Pine Creek drainage and a Fish and Game guy came over checked my license and kind of frisked my vest checking for worms! I was in the FFO section and I probably looked like it didn't belong there.

 

[salmo]

Just make sure if you are stopped, the name you gives matches the one on your license...

True story:

I was living in NYC and back in PA for a friend's wedding when I got nailed for speeding in a Delco township. I forgot my NYS license in my suitcase at my mom's house so I gave the officer my name, DOB, address, etc. and anticipated a speeding ticket in the mail.

Imagine my surprise when I got another ticket for driving without a license!! When I checked my license status (over the phone) with NY DMV, they COULDN'T find me in their system!!!

The mystery was solved in a few minutes when DMV asked me to read the name on my license. It was then I realized the name I gave the DMV person on the phone and the police officer was my shortened first name and my last name. However, the name on my license was; shortened first name, middle initial, last name.

Because of that stupid middle initial which I never used except when I was in elementary school, the PD couldn't verify my license status. Fortunately, the local Delco DJ was understanding and had me FAX a copy of my license and she dropped the 'no license" charges saving me a trip back to PA to produce evidence to the contrary.

A few years later I legally changed my name, permanently shortening my first name and dropping my middle name so now I only have a shortened first name and last name on all of my official documents INCLUDING my birth certificate!!

I don't know if this kind of thing could happen in 2024, but it definitely did and sucked in the late 1980's. 😉

Bam (NMN) Boozle

A fishing related, "don't have my license story":

I was fishing for shad from the bank on the Jersey side of the Delaware opposite the mouth of the Brodhead when I was approached by NJ Fish & Wildlife Officer in a boat and asked to see my license. Stupidly it was in my car, pinned to my vest which was parked in a pull-off about a 1/4 mile from the river up a steep, windy trail.

The officer wasn't enthused about accompanying me back to my car and passed on my offer to walk up and back to retrieve it so he just let me stay fishing and took off in his boat.

What dumb a$$ me didn't realize was at that time, there was no fishing reciprocity between PA & NJ on the Delaware so I WAS technically fishing WITHOUT a license. I image that Fish & Wildlife Officer wouldn't have been so understanding if he walked up that hill with me to find out I had a PA license... 😵

Perhaps it was a Jesuit lie?

 

[salmo]

I have been told that many Fish and Boat personnel check licenses using binoculars?

 

[dryflyguy]

I have been told that many Fish and Boat personnel check licenses using binoculars?

I was checked that way a few times when we had to display it
But not lately

 

[Swattie87]

I have been told that many Fish and Boat personnel check licenses using binoculars?

I’m sure they used to, before it was no longer a requirement to display. If you watch some of those TV fish and game enforcement reality shows (North Woods Law for example) they’ll show officers commonly observing anglers and hunters from an unseen distance through binoculars, then only approaching the subject closer once they’ve already observed something that was a potential violation. I’m sure this happens as an investigative tactic to some degree in PA too, but using binoculars to check for a displayed license is no longer effective, since it’s perfectly legal to keep a paper copy in your pack or wallet, or a digital copy on your phone.

 

[Swattie87]

I have never even seen a WCO, let alone been checked by one, in the last 24 years. Probably, because the streams I fish are in the middle of nowhere.

FWIW I had no trouble at all negotiating the HuntFishPa website. Actually, it was more user friendly than I had anticipated.

Me too. Aside from the few times I hatch chase on the larger streams each year, it’s unlikely for me to run into a WCO at all. Last two times (Kettle Creek and BFC) I ran into a WCO at all, we chatted for a bit, but they didn’t check my license.

FWIW my experience with the website has been fine too. I inevitably forget my login credentials every year, but even with having to look your account up, it’s maybe 3 minutes, 5 tops, and you’re done. Beats standing in line at Walmart the morning of the Opener.

 

[linwood]

Every year, in December, I purchase my daughter, her husband, my son, his wife, and three grandchildren a PA fishing license. They all include a trout permit. My son's includes the combination trout Lake Erie permit.
The youngest is a grandson born December 2023. He had his 2024 voluntary youth fishing license a week after he was born!

At Christmas, I give them all their fishing license for the next year. Here's to hoping they all have a Merry Christmas every day, all year long.

 

[TimMurphy]

The New Year a new license.
It is sure getting easier to purchase a license.
I just used the app and it was super easy.
Way easier than finding a clerk at Waly world.
Best part it is now stored on my phone. Not that I'll be asked to show it.
I haven't been asked in 30 years.
I do miss the stamp artwork.

Dear CRB,

Tomorrow I'll get my Christmas present from the wife, a lifetime license and a 10-year trout stamp. While you can buy next year's license on December 1st of every year you need to wait until the license year coincides with the year you turn 65 to buy a lifetime license.

I just hope I get a few years out of it, and she isn't just throwing money away. 😉

Happy New Year to all! 🙂

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[mszoke1802]

I have been told that many Fish and Boat personnel check licenses using binoculars?

I had one do this last summer on a lake. I ran into him after I got off lake and he was checking kayak/boat permits.

 

[Bamboozle]

Many moons ago I was float tubing for bass on a small lake on private property where the owner had no issues with angler's. The only place to park was on an adjacent road or driveway so one has to assume even though the lake was out of sight, WCO's figured if there was a car, there was a fisherman.

I was fishing and noticed someone walking along a trail beside the lake and about two seconds later there was a female PA Game Commission officer standing beside me on a small island in the center of the lake.

She asked to see my license which was displayed but she missed it. I was in a two chamber float tube and was wearing a PFD so there was noting of interest for her except the small cooler I had strapped to the side of my float tube.

She asked me if I had any fish in it and I just laughed and said it was too small and was just my lunch. We chatted a bit longer and she disappeared as stealthily as she appeared.

Good thing she didn't insist on looking in the cooler because it was holding four cans of Yuengling Premium... 🙄

 

[CRB]

Dear CRB,

Tomorrow I'll get my Christmas present from the wife, a lifetime license and a 10-year trout stamp. While you can buy next year's license on December 1st of every year you need to wait until the license year coincides with the year you turn 65 to buy a lifetime license.

I just hope I get a few years out of it, and she isn't just throwing money away. 😉

Happy New Year to all! 🙂

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

7 more years till I can get mine!
Keep active don't be sedentary. That will cut your life expectancy real fast.

 

[Bamboozle]

I have never even seen a WCO, let alone been checked by one, in the last 24 years. Probably, because the streams I fish are in the middle of nowhere...

Having cut my teeth on Delco stocked trout waters, I'm sure I was checked remotely more times than the encounters I remember. The most recent was on Darby Creek one Opening Day about 20 years ago when I was taking my nephews out fishing.

However, I have had more encounter with WCO's where they came up to me, started talking, we chatted for awhile and they NEVER asked to see my license. I should add that all of these encounters happened after I stopped displaying my license a LONG time ago after watching mine float away on the Big Bushkill Creek at Resica.

After one such encounter at the Saucon, as the WCO was leaving I asked why he didn't ask to see my license. His reply was, "someone who was geared up like me and fishing so intely would never cheap out and not buy a license..."

And he was right, I have never fished without one ever since my first license when I was 16...