Thread: Fishing license stored on smart phone, legal or not.

Same question on the Missouri board, Answer there was no.
So if you are fishing across the North line you need a paper copy

I have fam-damly in Arkansas. I was fishing Nimrod lake last weekend.

A Captain in Enforcement just answered my question. Here is his answer.
"It is probably a coming thing but as of now, we haven't been advised to accept it in lieu of the official paper."

So I interpret this as a no for now but a possibility in the future. Thanks for the question.

Originally Posted by D10

A Captain in Enforcement just answered my question. Here is his answer.
"It is probably a coming thing but as of now, we haven't been advised to accept it in lieu of the official paper."

So I interpret this as a no for now but a possibility in the future. Thanks for the question.

Wonder who we could contact to help push for the legality of electronic documentation. A person who buys online with a smart phone without access to a printer is in somewhat of a bind to get a paper document. No paper would help us to "be more green" and besides, the AGFC gets their money and maybe even more just because it would be convenient. Imagine a family on vacation staying near one of our beautiful lakes and not wanting to go through the line in some store for a license because IT IS somewhat intimidating, and not able to purchase online because of no printer. The flip side of this is a person walking down to the lake from their condo and decides that they MAY want to go fishing and they pull out their phone and purchase a license while standing on the lake shore and have everything they need to have a legal license in a matter of minutes. I am sure there are reasons to not do this, but I can't think of any. With GPS on the phone, electronic documentation could even assist in the apprehension of violators by having the telephone number of the device that the documentation is on. I would imagine that license files could even be formatted to be seen on a sonar unit and could even be blue toothed to an officer if the holder and officer are not in arms reach ie...officer on land and fisherman in boat. Lots of possibilities and Arkansas should be a leader in making this happen nation wide.

I like the way RCC thinks. Bluetooth to the consv. agent on shore... classic.

This would work for basic fishing and hunting licenses and stamps. I am not sure how it would work with deer and Turkey tags. I will bring this up at a fisheries regulation meeting this week. Thanks.

I believe the question was about fishing license not hunting license, two very different things in my opinion. I know from personal experience that a warden can call in your drivers license info and check your fishing license. I have had a warden do this with me, dispatch said I was good to go and that was it. It is obviously a different story with hunting license because u have tags, HIP, stamps etc but for fishing you don't even need it with you from my experience.

Originally Posted by uaagr

I believe the question was about fishing license not hunting license, two very different things in my opinion. I know from personal experience that a warden can call in your drivers license info and check your fishing license. I have had a warden do this with me, dispatch said I was good to go and that was it. It is obviously a different story with hunting license because u have tags, HIP, stamps etc but for fishing you don't even need it with you from my experience.

I believe that I would have my license on me. Other Wildlife Officers might not be as understanding or nice.