The best way to find out more about a lifetime fishing license price is to do some online searches. Just enter “fishing license” and it will bring up your state and some helpful information. Just as the fees for fishing licenses vary from state to state, so do the fees for lifetime fishing licenses in all states.
Is it worth the price for a lifetime fishing license?
Is it worth the cost? Are there any potential savings? If you live in a coastal state, your lifetime fishing license price may be more expensive than in landlocked states. For example, in California, if you are between 10 and 39 years old, a lifetime fishing license is $ 871.25. (Oddly enough, if you’re younger or older than this demographic, the price is lower.) For inland Oklahoma, however, the cost is $ 225 regardless of your age.
What does that mean? Using the examples above, if you divide the lifetime fishing license price by that state’s current annual fishing license price, this formula shows that after 9 years of fishing in Oklahoma, you would have “got your money’s worth”. It would take 18 years to get to that point in California.
These times can actually be shorter in the long run as annual royalties in a state can increase. Some states may even offer combined lifetime licenses. Georgia offers an “athlete license” that includes hunting, which is likely to mean even more savings if you break those numbers. And then there may be savings for seniors or military. For example, an angler over 64 in South Carolina can purchase a lifetime fishing license for $ 9!
While the initial cost may seem high, there can be savings if you are into fishing. The only thing stopping an angler from getting their money’s worth with a lifetime fishing license in all states is to buy one and then not use it. Many simply prefer to get the annual fishing license. In any case, there is a significant portion of your fishing license fee that goes towards improving your fishing so that everyone gets their money’s worth.
Andy Whitcomb
Andy is an outdoor writer (http://www.justkeepreeling.com/) and stressed-out dad has contributed over 380 blogs to takemefishing.org since 2011. Born in Florida but raised on the banks of farm ponds in Oklahoma, he now hunts pike, small bass and steelhead in Pennsylvania. After graduating with a degree in zoology from OSU, he worked in fish hatcheries and as a fisheries research technician at OSU, in the US state of Iowa and the US state of Michigan.
