De-Mystifying Hunting & Fishing Licenses, Part I

Ignorance about fishing and hunting licenses does not make one exempt from the tangled mass of fish and game laws on the books in Texas. After a painful firsthand experience, here are the details needed in order to prevent any ugly run-ins with well-intentioned, gung-ho Texas state game wardens, whose job it is to protect fish and game.

The new 2008-2009 licenses (valid August 31, 2008 to Sept. 1, 2009) are available for purchase. However, if the purchaser is on active-duty in the military and a Texas resident, the license is free. Same thing for disabled veterans with a service-connected disability of 60 percent or more as defined by the U.S. Veterans Administration, or who have suffered the service-related loss of a foot or a leg. There also are lifetime hunting and fishing combo licenses available for $1,000.

Senior citizens born before Sept. 1, 1930, don't need to buy a fishing license, nor do children under 17. However, even though grandpa has to be a nearly 80-year-old Texan to be exempt, an Oklahoman fishing as a non-resident guest in Texas only has to be 65.

Senior citizens and children will need to buy a hunting license, though at a discounted rate. To preface Part 2 of this story or in case you miss Part 2 next Sunday: T  he rest of you should buy licenses by Sept. 1, and proceed with due diligence in order to protect your financial resources from fines that stem from any of a multitude of criminal offenses unwittingly committed by thinking people can just get out and fish or hunt. Yes, it's a free country, but people must pay for that freedom.

Purchase the fishing license before it gets much later than Sept. 1 in order to get the most out of your money, and pick up a hunting license while there. Those who have gone out on that Saturday morning the opening day of the early special white-wing season to buy shotgun shells and a license likely will never make the same mistake twice.

And now a quiz question: Do kids hunting rabbits need a hunting license? How about an adult popping a ground squirrel with a pellet gun? Of course they do. They are hunting, aren't they?

Most of people realize hunting licenses are needed to hunt birds, such as turkey and dove, and big-game animals, such as white-tailed deer, nilgai and wild hogs. However, for rabbits and other "non-game" animals, such as mountain lions, coyotes, frogs, prairie dogs, and ground squirrels, adults and children must also have hunting licenses.

If a child is age 6 and shoots a squirrel with a pellet gun, he or she has to have a $6 youth hunting license or else the child's guardian is liable to prosecution. Also, if the child is under 17 years of age and lacks an official hunter education course completion, he or she cannot be near a legal firearm unsupervised. That means they cannot go out hunting with said firearm without someone who is 17 years old or older that has completed a hunter education course. Adults born before Sept. 2, 1971, are exempt from hunter education requirements and can accompany youth.

All youth who harvest or attempt to harvest any animal, game or non-game, must have that $6 license. If a boy shoots a deer without the license, yes, it will be confiscated by the game warden and the guardian adult will be subject to rather severe penalties, not the least of which is the child's heartache.

This inexpensive license is vitally necessary for children and also is happily exempt from all of the stamp endorsements, as well as the annual public hunting permit fee.

In next Sunday's installment, licenses for the rest of the demographics will be addressed.

Ben Christensen can be reached via e-mail at bc@riograndeoutdoors.com.