Washington hunters and anglers will soon be able to begin storing their licenses and tags as well as reporting their catches and kills on their smartphone, just like Oregon sportsmen have for several years.
WDFW Director Kelly Susewind this morning said the option will become available in December for the 2026-27 license year, which begins this coming April.
Briefing the Fish and Wildlife Commission, he said the agency had been trying to make electronic licensing available “for a long time” – comment on the proposal was opened back in September 2023 – and said it would also help provide WDFW managers with better, more accurate catch information in real time.
Sportsmen will still be able to acquire good old-fashioned printed licenses and tags if they wish next license year.
WDFW is expected to roll out a press release with more details in the coming weeks, according to spokeswoman Eryn Couch.
“Following the December launch of the MyWDFW mobile app, license holders will be able to select to become a mobile license holder for the 2026 license year. Their mobile license products would be valid at the start of the new license year on April 1, 2026,” she said.
Couch said that those with existing paper licenses, tags, endorsements and other WDFW licensing products “will remain paper license holders through the 2025 license year and then will have the option to switch to mobile for the 2026 license year.”
Another of the big questions Washington fishermen and hunters will have is, OK, how will WDFW’s fancy-pants new system work for recording a fish when I’m at the bottom of a remote canyon or buck at the bottom of some hellhole?
“Data entered offline is stored on your device and will sync automatically when you’re back in service,” said Couch.
I experienced that earlier this fall after landing a Siletz River fall Chinook in a spot with no coverage. I entered the catch, saved it, went back to trolling, and the harvest was synched when I had reception again.
(Just because I’m super paranoid about having to write myself up in The Dishonor Roll, I also took a screenshot of my recorded catch lest I ran into the troopers before synchage occurred.)
E-licenses, catch cards and tags have taken awhile to get to one of the real tech centers of the country, but Evergreen State sportsmen will soon be able to carry them in their phone.
Oregon has had e-licensing since 2019, per former ODFW director Curt Melcher.
Correction, 2:03 p.m., Friday, November 14, 2025: WDFW Spokeswoman Eryn Couch’s last name was misspelled in the initial version of this blog as Crouch. My apologies.
