Getting Legal

August is nearly half gone and September will be here before we know it. Time for all hunters and anglers to dish out some dough to pay the piper.

The piper is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Sept. 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year for the state agency charged with managing and preserving the natural and cultural resources of Texas. Taking good care of our wildlife and fisheries comes with the territory.

A proper license is required to legally hunt and fish in Texas. Hunters born on or after Sept. 2, 1971 also are required to pass an approved hunter education course. The minimum age for certification is nine years.

Hunter education certification is good for life. Most Texas hunting and fishing licenses are only good for a year.

Current licenses (except year-to-date fishing licenses, Lake Texoma fishing licenses and Lifetime Licenses ) expire at midnight on Aug. 31 each year. The same is true for stamp endorsements and the popular Annual Public Hunting Permit.

You will need a new license to hunt or fish (unless exempt) in Texas on or after Sept. 1. A hunting license is not required to go after feral hogs on private property.

Licenses, stamp endorsements and APHP’s will go on sale Aug. 15 at various TPWD field offices, state parks and nearly 2,000 vendor locations around the state. Sales of Fishing Guide Licenses and Special Resident All-Water Fishing Licenses are restricted to TPWD law enforcement offices.

Most licenses and permits also can be purchased online using a credit card. Be aware there is a $5 administrative fee tacked onto the charge for each credit card transaction. It’s a good idea to take care of all your business at once to avoid getting tagged with additional charges.

Nearly three million recreational and commercial fishing and hunting licenses are sold in Texas each year. Business for the current year is down slightly from last year, according to TPWD license manager Mike Hobson. Hobson says license sales for fiscal year 2022-23 dropped about 1.7 percent from the previous year. The decrease resulted in a 1.67 percent reduction in revenue.

Hobson says all recreational and commercial license sales for the current fiscal year had generated about $110 million for TPWD as of Aug. 6. The license fees are used exclusively for fish and wildlife conservation efforts ranging from stocking local lakes, to habitat monitoring and restoration, Hobson said.

TPWD offers a wide variety of licenses tailored to suit specific needs. Here’s the rundown on Texas hunting and fishing licenses and what they cost:

TAILOR MADE FOR HUNTERS

If you hunt but don’t fish, you can buy a resident hunting license for $25. Senior resident hunting licenses for hunters 65 and older are discounted to $7, as are resident and non-resident Youth Licenses for youngsters under 17.

Stamp endorsements required to hunt deer during the Archery Only season (at any time in Rockwall, Dallas, Collin and Grayson counties) migratory birds and upland game must be purchased separately for $7 each. There also is a $10 endorsement required for capturing indigenous reptiles or amphibians on the shoulder of a public road or any unpaved area of a public right of way. Waterfowl hunters 16 and older are required to have a $25 Federal Duck Stamp, in addition to a $7 state migratory game bird endorsement.

Some hunters and landowners may not know it, but a Hunting Lease License is required of a landowner or landowner’s agent who leases hunting rights to another person on property they own or control. The annual lease licenses range in cost from $79 to $252, depending on the size of the property. The license must be displayed at the hunting lease.

The Annual Public Hunting Permit is a popular item with hunters. The $48 permit allows purchasers to hunt a multitude of game animals and birds, and fish, on more than one million acres of land across Texas.

Some of the property is owned by TPWD and some is leased by TPWD from other state and federal agencies, timber companies and other cooperating private landowners. The land includes the state’s Public Dove and Small Game Hunting Areas.

LET’S FISH A valid license along with a freshwater or saltwater endorsement is required of any resident who fishes or takes fish, mussels, clams, crawfish or other aquatic life in Texas’ public waters, fresh or salt.

Fishing licenses or endorsements are not required for youths under 17, seniors born before Jan. 1, 1931, or persons with documented intellectual abilities. Nor is a license required to fish in private stock tanks, or in state parks.

The list of licenses exclusive to anglers is a broad one. There are resident and non-resident license packages available for freshwater, saltwater or a combination of both. The packages include a license as well as the required fresh or saltwater endorsements with a red drum tag.

FRESHWATER PACKAGES

* Resident Freshwater Package: $30 * Senior Freshwater Package: Texas resident 65 years and older; $12 * Non-resident Freshwater Package: $58

SALTWATER PACKAGES

* Resident Saltwater Package: $35 * Senior Saltwater Package: Texas resident 65 years and older; $17 * Non-resident Saltwater Package: $63

ALL WATER PACKAGES AND LICENSES: (VALID FOR FRESHWATER AND SALTWATER FISHING)

* Resident All-Water Package: $40 * Resident Year-from-Purchase All-Water Package: $47 * Senior All-Water Package: Texas resident 65 years and older, $22 * Non-resident All-Water Package: $68 * One-Day All-Water License: $11 (No endorsement required) * Special Resident All-Water License: Available to any Texas resident who is legally blind, no endorsements required, $7 * One-Day Resident All-Water License: $11

FISHING GUIDE LICENSE: (REQUIRED FOR ANY PERSON WHO FOR COMPENSATION, ACCOMPANIES, ASSISTS OR TRANSPORTS ANY PERSON ENGAGED IN FISHING IN THE WATERS OF THE STATE)

* Freshwater Fishing Guide: Texas resident and non-resident, $132 * Resident All-Water Fishing Guide License: $210 * Resident All-Water Paddle-craft Fishing Guide: $210 * Non-resident All-Water Guide: $1,050 * Non-resident All-Water Paddle-craft Guide: $1,050 Lake Texoma License: (Valid for fishing in Texas or Oklahoma waters of Lake Texoma. Texas residents 65 years of age or older are exempt. Licenses expire December 31 each year.) $12

DOUBLING UP WITH COMBOS

TPWD offers several combination packages that include licenses to hunt and fish along with select endorsements at discounted prices: * Super Combo/Digital Super Combo: It’s the most popular license on the menu. About 454,000 Super Combos were sold last year. At $68, it also represents the greatest value.

The package includes a resident hunting license and resident fishing license valid for fresh and saltwater, plus five state endorsements for archery, freshwater, saltwater, upland game birds and migratory game birds. It does not include the Federal Duck Stamp.

The license is available in paper, or in a digital format that was launched last year. The digital format allows for tagging of harvested deer, turkey and oversized red drum using the My Texas Hunt Harvest app on cellular phones.

Note: Beginning this year, TPWD is offering Youth Hunting, Lifetime Hunting and Fishing tags and Exempt angler tag in digital format. More information about harvest reporting and required physical documentation for deer and turkey, as well as harvest reporting requirements for red drum, can be found on the digital tag webpage at tpwd.texas.gov/ digitaltags.

* Senior Super Combo/ Digital Super Combo: Built with the same goodies as the standard Super Combo, but available only to residents 65 or older for $32.

* Combo Hunting and Fishing Packages: Packages include a resident hunting license and a resident fishing license that includes a freshwater endorsement or saltwater endorsement with a red drum tag. Packages can be upgraded by purchasing the additional fishing endorsements.

* Combo Hunting & Freshwater Fishing: $50 * Combo Hunting & Saltwater Fishing: $55 * Combo Hunting & All-Water Fishing: $60 * Senior Combo Hunting & Freshwater Fishing: $16 * Senior Combo Hunting & Saltwater Fishing: $21 * Senior Combo Hunting & All-Water Fishing:$ 26

LIFETIME LICENSE PACKAGES

A great gift for a youngster that is valid for the lifetime of the license holder. Available to eligible Texas residents only. You must apply for Lifetime Licenses at a TPWD Law Enforcement office or TPWD Austin Headquarters.

* Lifetime Resident Combination Hunting/ Fishing, $1,800 * Lifetime Resident Hunting: $1,000 * Lifetime Resident Fishing: $1,000

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.