FYI - 2017 Licenses

[spitzomt]

I posted this over on IceShanty earlier....................

Just passing this along because it's info that I was not aware of !!

My wife went to get her 2017 fishing license this afternoon & returned home with a new one for me (I purchased mine 2/28/2017) that she had to pay $2.00 for. Apparently any 2017 fishing license purchased before 5/19/2017 is no longer a legal license. The new licenses have a "Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Pass" that adds $2.00 to the cost of the license. The gentleman informed my wife that this was added to the licenses on 5/19/2017 & the FWP Game Warden told him that anglers checked that don't have the new license will be given written warnings the first time & ticketed/fined after that. This info was passed along to my wife who passed it along to me, so I hope it's accurate. Regardless, I guess I needed an updated 2017 license.

[wyogator]

Thanks for the heads-up Spitzo. This whole thing is ridiculous. I understand the need for an invasive species pass, and an extra $2 isn't too expensive. The problem I have is that they should have had their s*** together before March 1, when the new licenses came out, or waited until next year. There are a lot of fishermen out there who have no idea about this and won't find out until they get a written warning. Plus, the inconvenience of having to buy another license after already buying one. You know that it will probably cost more than $2 when they tack on their administrative or processing fee. It will be more like 5 or 6 bucks.

[freeman]

The new AIS pass costs 2 dollars for residents and 15 dollars for non-residents. Unbelievable!

[wyogator]

I just purchased my AIS pass online for $3.33.

[freeman]

the montana fish wildlife and parks AIS pass for non-resident is $15 on their website

[wllye]

My question is why aren't the casual non fisherman boaters , kayakers, floaters not paying this fee.  The mussles don't just pick fishermans boats

[walleye_guy]

My question is why aren't the casual non fisherman boaters , kayakers, floaters not paying this fee.  The mussles don't just pick fishermans boats

And not all fisherman use boats.  I think that there are quite a few of us waiting for a good answer to your question.