# Here's your new normal



## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

*Utah sees record fishing and hunting license sales during pandemic*








Utah sees record fishing and hunting license sales during pandemic


Utah DWR announces a record year for hunting and fishing license sales




www.fox13now.com





March 2020 to February 2021 saw a 28% increase in total license sales from the previous year.


222,124 combination licenses, which allow hunting and fishing were sold, up from 183,358 from last year.
417,883 fishing licenses were sold, an increase of more than 100,000 licenses from the year before.
68,265 hunting licenses were sold, up from the previous year’s 50,551 hunting licenses.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Imagine having to draw for a fishing license.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Going to be interesting to see how this affects the draw odds going forward. How many people dived in for the first time this year. We might see a plateau of everyone with 1pt or more going forward. We can call it the Covid Bump.

-DallanC


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## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

I was happy to see it. I get it’s bad for draw odds and what not but funding is desperately needed to fund wildlife conservation and the more people we have buying licenses and being involved in the outdoors the better.

I was also surprised to see how little the virtual hunt expo fell. This year $8.1 million, last year $8.7 million.





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SFW.net







sfw.net


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I'm guessing fishing license numbers stay up, but hunting license numbers will scale back eventually. 

I didn't buy any licenses for myself. (Thank you 13 year old Vanilla for buying a lifetime license!) But I did buy two fishing licenses for people in my household, both of which were first time licensees.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

I would have thought the Expo had a lot more people in the raffle. But is the $8.1 million just what was raised from the auction tags? Or does that include their share of the application fees?

And yes an increase in hunting licenses of 56,480 would really screw with the draw odds. Increased odds and more tag cuts being demanded will make for a lot of disappointed people.

I'm just not sure how much I will credit the whole Covid thing for the increase though.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

I absolutely believe that COVID is directly related to the increase in licenses purchased. Lots of people figured, “he’ll, can’t do anything else, might as well go fishing or hunting”. No doubt in my mind... I mean, what else would it be?

It’s nice to see the extra participation. I don’t see fishing going away anytime soon, but hunting? We need to be extra careful and vigilant there - especially with a society that is more and more urbanized and out of touch with the outdoors.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

The fishing part I can absolutely believe. The hunting part not so much unless the whole waterfowl /upland game scene exploded.
Yes there was a tremendous uptick in gun purchases but for someone randomly saying oh I don't have anything else to do I guess I'll go out and buy a gun and figure out how to jump through all the hoops to actually get a big game tag? Not so much.

But how long have we heard the mantra "if you don't apply, you can't draw". Maybe it is all the people who were alienated years ago finally came to their senses.


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## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

middlefork said:


> I would have thought the Expo had a lot more people in the raffle. But is the $8.1 million just what was raised from the auction tags? Or does that include their share of the application fees?
> 
> And yes an increase in hunting licenses of 56,480 would really screw with the draw odds. Increased odds and more tag cuts being demanded will make for a lot of disappointed people.
> 
> I'm just not sure how much I will credit the whole Covid thing for the increase though.


Its all of it. It does say there was a significant increase in applications for the tags due to the “not having to validate” this year


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

As alluded to above, a hunting license does not automatically a big game application. Plenty of hunting licenses or combination licenses in Utah go to people that don’t apply for big game permits.


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## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

middlefork said:


> I'm just not sure how much I will credit the whole Covid thing for the increase though.


I believe we were already on the rise in the number of hunters. Every year I saw more and more hunters in one area I frquent. Before covid, I recall thinking how many more hunters I had seen over the past 3 years or so. Many of them showed signs of being new to hunting, or from originally being from back east somewhere.

Covid, threw it into overdrive. In 2019 I saw nobody in the field during the archery hunt. Saw a couple other hunters on the road, but nobody stepping on anyones toes. In 2020, in the same area, it was like a rifle hunt in october, only with bows. Saw at least 6 other groups of hunters in the field, and a few of them were pretty obviously "trying this thing out". *Blue* backpack... geeez. I should have taken a picture.


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

I imagine Strawberry will be a zoo this year. With the proliferation of ebikes, FB will be crazy too. Good thing I can hunt weekdays. Hopefully Canada will let us in this year. I bought my lifetime license in 1993. One for my son, too, who doesn't use it.

I ran into a couple of guys a few years ago on the North Slope who were lost. No cell service. Go figure.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

I find it hard to believe Covid-19 isn't related to such a substantial bump. But it's uncertain what activity they were after and how long they will stick around. It's a lot easier and more affordable to pick up fishing for a year than hunting.

I'm not as optimistic ad 1-Eye though. I know it's the system we use to fund conservation for game but that's a double edged sword. This isn't a situation when I think more is better.


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