A new digital hunting and fishing license is now on sale that allows Super Combo license holders to digitally tag harvested turkey, deer and oversized redfish.
The license option must have a Texas Parks and Wildlife app to access it.
A Super Combo license is one of the most popular options among TPWD licenses. The Super Combo includes a hunting license, for both archery and gun, a fishing license, for both saltwater and fresh, along with five state endorsements at a discounted price.
Cost for a Texas resident is $68 annually, and $32 for seniors.
The new digital Super Combo licensee will not receive a printed license or tags but must keep their digital license with them in the field. On their phone, hunters and anglers can authorize digital tagging of deer, turkey and oversize redfish.
But what if a hunter or angler isn’t in cell-phone-tower range? This is a not-uncommon occurrence, whether it’s hunting in rural areas here in the Valley, or fishing in the Laguna Madre or Gulf of Mexico.
Licensees with the appropriate app can save their report on “unsubmitted” status. Then one is required to write their first and last name of who harvested the deer, turkey or oversized redfish on some sort of tag, add a hunting license number which is on the app, along with date and time of harvest.
As soon as a licensee is back within cell-tower range, he or she must then complete and submit the harvest report.
The new licenses can only be purchased online, and then can be viewed on the TPWD Outdoor Annual and My Texas Hunt Harvest mobile apps.
“We are piloting this with the Super Combo license types which is one of our most popular licenses that we sell,” said Carter Smith, executive director of TPWD. “Lifetime Combo license holders will also be able to use the digital tagging portion of this pilot as well.
“This has been a long-time coming, but we think this is a great first step to offering more options for our hunters and anglers in the field,” he added.
TPWD officials said digital tagging for deer, turkey and oversized redfish must be done via the My Texas Hunt Harvest app, which is now available for both Android and Apple phones.
Digital license holders still must purchase a separate federal duck stamp.
