By Gary Joiner
TFB Radio Network Manager

Texas hunters and anglers will soon be able to carry their hunting and fishing license digitally via their smartphone or other wireless device.

Current Texas law requires the carrying of a physical copy of a hunting and fishing license.

HB 547 by State Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg mandates that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) provide licensees a downloadable image from the TPWD website or allow a photograph of their physical license to serve as verification of a valid license.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on May 16. The effective date of the new law is Sept. 1.

Canales told the House Committee on Culture, Recreation, and Tourism at a March 5 hearing that the legislation simply clarifies what is already being allowed in the field.

“Currently, Texans can buy a hunting and fishing license at physical stores and online through Texas Parks and Wildlife. When you buy it online, you get a license mailed to you, but you instantaneously get a receipt from that store,” Canales told the committee. “My staff and I have had conversations with Texas Parks and Wildlife and figured out that game wardens are routinely allowing Texans to show this digital receipt from an online purchase and show pictures of their hunting license on their phone.”

Canales feels the bill is a first step in modernizing hunting and fishing license processes.

“Basically, this will just modernize our current hunting and fishing license system to better fit changing demands,” he told the committee. “I hope that this will grow into a more complex application, wherein you would eventually be able to buy your tickets and/or tags for red fish online in the water.”

Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock sponsored the legislation in the Senate.