Lifetime Fishing License Is Too Long!

August13, 2015

Question: I purchased a lifetime fishing license about 10 years ago. What used to be a small piece of paper that I could put in my wallet or keep in my tackle box has grown to where it’s now more than six feet in length. How about giving me a credit card type of license I can recharge every year instead of a new one? This would save a lot of money and be a lot easier to carry. (Michael T.)
Answer: When lifetime items are renewed online, multiple items (tags, report cards, etc.) ordered together may arrive in one envelope and be printed out together as one long document. This accounts for the document length you describe, but just so you know, you should separate your documents on the dotted line printed between documents to make them more manageable.

According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Associate Governmental Program Analyst Brent George, our License and Revenue Branch at one time considered a credit card system for lifetime license customers. Although the idea has some merit, they found that given California’s large population, and the overall complexity of sport fishing and hunting privileges available throughout the state, this solution is not practical. CDFW always tries to consider all viable options when developing licensing solutions for California’s hunters and anglers.

I don't think they tried hard enough....

Actually, I think they are trying to get us all more practice on using the wonderful ALUS system. We all love it and want to use it more, right? Anybody else think the mainframe it resides on would make a better boat anchor?

"not practical" hah! Cause California is so practical. Shitty cheap bastards.

No shit.
Encode the card with what you bought, scan the card for enforcement.
Just like a gift card...Super cheap. The retail POSA systems are already in nearly every outlet, all you need is to generate the cards.
Punch cards and reporting tags probably still need to be paper...

The word "privileges" pissed me off.