Participation levels jump amid pandemic
A collective re-engagement with the outdoors, including hunting and fishing, is a welcomed silver lining to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hunting license sales increased approximately five percent from 2019 to 2020, according to a report released this month by the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports.
Monthly license sales data was used from 40 states, which accounted for 87 percent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s total certified sales in 2018 and was therefore deemed an appropriate representation for the country in general, according to the report. Thirty-five of those 40 states saw an overall increase in hunting license sales.
Resident licenses saw an increase of 5.4 percent and nonresident license sales were up 1.6 percent.
The data was broken into four regional groups (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and West) and each saw boosts to hunting license sales.
The Southeast, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee, saw the greatest regional increase of license sales at 8.7 percent, buoyed by a 9.8 percent increase in resident license sales.
The Midwest region of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota had the smallest increase with all license sales up 1.2 percent. However, the Midwest makes up 34.8 percent of the report's total U.S. license sales and is the largest group of hunters.
Texas is in the West with Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon and Wyoming; a group that saw an increase of 6.8 percent in all license sales. The West had a 7.6 percent increase in resident sales and had the highest increase in nonresident sales (2.9 percent) of the four regions.
Texas’ license sales showed spikes amid the pandemic in hunting and fishing.
From Aug. 15 through the end of December, license data from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department showed the number of super combo package sales increased by 33,690 from the previous year, a nearly 7.9 percent rise. Total combination license packages were up over 10 percent.
Over that same period, resident hunting license sales ticked up by 2.7 percent and youth hunting licenses climbed over 6 percent, with nearly 7,000 more youth licenses sold than the previous year. Annual public hunting permit sales jumped more than 20 percent.
Drawn hunt applications were up 34 percent from the previous year and Big Time Texas Hunts applications were up 32 percent.
Meanwhile, nonresident hunting sales took a slight dip (less than 1 percent) during the August through December period. Nonresident sales took the biggest hit during 2020’s spring turkey season. Texas sold 1,362 nonresident spring turkey licenses during 2020 compared to the average of 3,878 in the previous four seasons, a 65 percent decrease.
During the August through December tracking period, fishing licenses in Texas exploded. 32,717 more resident year-from-purchase all water licenses were sold than the previous year, a more than 50 percent spike. Resident freshwater fishing licenses were up over 23 percent, saltwater up nearly 15 percent. Total fishing packages and stamps were up about 24 percent.
“Our license year runs from September through August of each year…In license year 2020 there was a total of 1,561,867 fishing licenses sold compared to license year 2019, when 1,293,468 fishing licenses were sold. These numbers include all freshwater and saltwater fishing packages and endorsements combined,” said Brian Van Zee, a regional director for TPWD’s inland fisheries division.
“This was a record-breaking year in terms of the number of fishing licenses sold, and it’s encouraging to see people getting outdoors and enjoying the great resources of the state. You might be able to say that people and families getting outdoors and spending more time together is one positive outcome from the pandemic.”
Fishbrain, a social media network for anglers, documented nearly 126,000 catches in Texas during 2020, a 20 percent increase from 2019. The top three species in Texas caught and logged on Fishbrain were largemouth bass (96,537), bluegill (7,640) and channel catfish (7,059). The top three waterbodies were Ascarate Lake, Lake Lewisville and Belton Lake, according to Fishbrain.
“At a time when millions of people have been plunged into lockdown, many people took up fishing as a responsible, socially distanced pastime,” said Johan Attby, Fish brain’ s CEO. “It is heartening to see such a vast increase in catches in 2020 as Texans turned to the water, and I hope that this trend continues in 2021 as people come to realize the myriad of benefits fishing can have, from increasing mental wellbeing to forming new friendships.”
Some random license tidbits from around the country:
• The California Department of Fish and Wildlife saw an 11 percent increase in sport fishing licenses in 2020 from the previous year. California hunting license sales rose 9 percent, and about 16 percent of resident hunting licenses last year were for first-time buyers.
• Total fishing licenses sold in Colorado jumped to 1,331,457 in 2020 from 1,127,792 in 2019.
• Oklahoma’s resident fishing licenses rocketed up 49 percent while nonresident licenses grew 31 percent.
• New York’s hunter education program went online and had a 105 percent increase in participation.
• Alabama sold 154,792 all-game resident hunting licenses in 2020, 149,710 in 2019. The state sold 307,002 resident freshwater fishing and 50,068 resident saltwater fishing licenses in 2020 after selling 259,763 freshwater and 44,627 saltwater in 2019.
• Michigan’s total of unique fishing customers went up 10.6 percent while folks aged 17-24 led the way with a 21 percent increase. All hunting categories except antlerless deer surged.
• Alaska saw a huge dip in nonresident fishing license sales. 11,537 nonresident sport fish licenses were sold in 2020, the lowest number since 2001. The bottom fell out of one-day nonresident sport fish licenses; 33,463 in 2020 compared to 121,439 in 2019.