Thank you Gov Desantis

You have to wonder who actually thought of this and proposed it to DeSantis.

 

Yep. Plan to get the whole family. And sent this to my brother in law….

 

Thanks for posting this!

 

What about lobster? Any idea if that is covered in the lifetime passes?

 

From FWC’s website:

The Lifetime Gold Sportsman's License includes Hunting, Freshwater Fishing and Saltwater Fishing licenses; and Deer, Wildlife Management Area, Archery, Muzzleloading Gun, Crossbow, Turkey, Florida Waterfowl, Snook and Lobster permits.

 

I think it covers basically everything except for trap permits (lobster, blue crab, and stone crab traps for example), the gulf reef fish permit that is free but they want people to apply for every year to track reef fishing pressure, the migratory bird permit, federal duck stamps, and the quota/drawing based permits.

 

How can the state include a federal duck stamp as part of their package license? Will the state then pay the federal government?

 

They don’t include it in this package.

You can buy your federal duck stamp through FWC (and I assume that is basically just FWC being a pass-through seller), but it isn’t included in the package licenses.

 

Sorry, I misread your post. You were listing the exceptions to the package license. Thanks for the clarification!

I sent the link to my son in Florida. I think this is such a great idea.

 

And I already renewed my parks

Those fishing licenses are already free

to old people

 

I guess I would agree that even a clown Ron DeSantis occasionally does something praiseworthy.

 

Gonna tell on myself here. Most of you won't believe it but I have rarely done a dishonest thing in my life. Perhaps the one big exception involved quota hunt permits. Back when I was an avid bow hunter I used to apply for quota hunt permits to the states prime wildlife management areas. You were only allowed to apply for 2 permits per hunter. Permits could be traded with other hunters so the name on the permit didn't matter, as long as you had a permit the name on it didn't have to match yours. My first dishonest thing was to apply multiple times in fake names. The state didn't really care all they were really interested in was the application fee. One year I actually hunted under the name Elmer Fudd.

OK so here is my big crime. The prime Wildlife Management Areas were almost impossible to get. Seminole Forrest at the time was the most sought after permit. Every hunter in the state wanted one but they only issued 50 permits per year to Seminole Forrest WMA. In today's world this would be easier to do so I'm sure they watch for it but in the 1980s when PC's were just getting popular and personal printers were almost unheard of nobody was really looking for forgeries. There were no paint programs out and autocad was about the only software that could be used for drawing. I used autocad to match the font and print size the state used on their permits. I discovered the writing on the permits was done by carbon paper so it could be erased. Using an eraser and an eraser shield I could erase the WMA name then run it through my printer and change the name of the WMA of an easy to obtain WMA to Seminole Forrest WMA. My forgeries were perfect. For a few years my friends and I were able to hunt the states most valued WMAs on forged permits.

Jeez I hope the statute of limitations for forgery has expired.

 

I am 100 percent for more people enjoying nature.
I just hope they thought through the added stresses this will put on the wildlife and the infrastructure.
The national parks have almost been loved to death as their number soared over the past decade, the feds had to put 12 billion extra I think into them in recent years. Some parks now require reservations or have daily limits on certain things to ease the burden. And before that many were more like amusements parks than nature parks with the crowds, traffic etc.

 

I wonder if you get a lifetime license and then move away from Florida, is the license still good if you return for a visit?

 

Yes.

“Lifetime licenses remain valid for use in Florida even if the license holder moves out of the state.”

Lifetime Licenses

 

Elmer, it may not surprise you but there was a lot of this going on. GFC knew it - didn’t matter as far as management goals were concerned. And it wasn’t for the application fee which was minuscule but rather to harvest a certain number of deer while managing the number of hunters so a satisfying and safe hunt could be had. Didn’t really matter if Elmer Fudd and Wiley Coyote were the Hunters except to those more ethical cartoon characters who were cheated.

 

True, the applying in multiple names was quite common, everybody was doing it......I doubt there were many forging permits, I think that would screw up the true management purpose of the permits. If all 50 of the allowed hunters had showed up at Seminole Forrest I would have been #51.....Hey I like that, I promise you #51 has no connection to my moniker.