Fishing, hunting licenses for sale on-line

OLYMPIA- It's now easier than ever to prepare for a summer fishing trip- or other activities requiring a Washington state recreational license- with licenses now available for sale over the Internet.

Fishers, hunters and those planning to visit Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) lands and access sites can purchase the necessary licenses or access parking decals at http://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov on the Internet. Besides license purchases, the site also can be used for special hunt permit applications and for hunter harvest reports.

The license sales site also can be accessed with a link from the WDFW homepage.

License buyers using the Internet site will receive an authorization number for immediate use. However, they should allow at least five weekdays for mail delivery of documents for activities which require a catch record card or hunt tag. Fish species which require a catch record card include salmon, sturgeon, steelhead, Dungeness crab and halibut.

The Internet sales site, which allows credit card purchases at any time of day, is one of several means of purchasing fishing and hunting licenses under the state's new Washington Interactive Licensing Database (WILD) system.

The WILD system also offers in-person license sales at WDFW offices and some 500 retail license dealers statewide, and toll-free telephone license sales (at 1-877-WILD-4-WA).

Like the Internet, telephone sales require five days for mail delivery of actual license documents. However, both telephone and Internet license purchasers are issued an authorization number at the time of the transaction which allows fishers and hunters to immediately pursue activities such as lowland lake fishing which do not require a catch record card or a tag.

The sales site originally was to go on-line when the WILD system began operation March 1, but its implementation was delayed to ensure the site was functioning properly, said WDFW Licensing Manager Bruce Crawford.