Sport Fishing Licenses

Section 7145 provides that every person 16 years of age or older who takes any fish, reptile, or amphibian for any purpose other than profit is required to first obtain a valid license for that purpose and have that license on his or her person or in his or her immediate possession or where otherwise specifically required by law or regulation to be kept when engaged in carrying out any activity authorized by the license.

Section 7147 prohibits the owner or operator of a boat or vessel licensed from permitting any person to fish from that boat or vessel unless that person has, in his or her possession, a valid California sport fishing license and any required stamp, report card, or validation issued pursuant to this code.

Section 7149.05 provides that a sport fishing license granting the privilege to take any fish, reptile, or amphibian anywhere in this state for purposes other than profit is required to be issued to any of seven specified individuals. California sport fishing license validations are to be issued by authorized license agents in the same manner as sport fishing licenses, and no compensation is to be paid to the authorized license agent for issuing the validations.

Section 7149.2 requires the department to issue a lifetime sport fishing license under this section. A lifetime sport fishing license authorizes the taking of fish, amphibians, or reptiles anywhere in this state in accordance with the law for purposes other than profit for the life of the person to whom issued unless revoked for a violation of this code or regulations adopted under this code.

Section 7149.3 states that a sport fishing license is not required for a resident to take a rattlesnake (genus Crotalus or Sistrurus).

Section 7149.45 makes it unlawful for any person to fish with two rods without first obtaining a second-rod sport fishing validation, in addition to a valid California sport fishing license validation, and having that validation affixed to his or her valid sport fishing license.

Section 7149.5 states that enrollees in the Job Corps, created by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, are deemed to be residents of California.

Section 7149.7 allows the director to designate not more than two days, which may or may not be consecutive, in each year as free sportfishing days during which residents and nonresidents may, without having a sportfishing license and without the payment of any fee, exercise the privileges of a holder of a sportfishing license, subject to all of the limitations, restrictions, conditions, laws, rules, and regulations applicable to the holder of a sportfishing license.

Section 7149.8 prohibits a person from taking abalone from ocean waters unless he or she first obtains, in addition to a valid California sport fishing license and any applicable license validation or stamp issued pursuant to this code, an abalone report card, and maintains that report card in his or her possession while taking abalone.

Section 7149.9 provides that fees received by the department are deposited in the Abalone Restoration and Preservation Account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, which can be used only for the Recreational Abalone Management Program. The program must include three specified provisions.

At least 15 percent of the funds deposited in the account must be used for program activities south of San Francisco. To the extent possible, participants in the management activities of the program in that area are to be former commercial abalone divers.

Section 7150 states that the specified persons, who have not been convicted of any violation of this code, must be issued a reduced fee sport fishing license that is valid for one year and that authorizes the licensee to take any fish, reptile, or amphibian anywhere in this state as otherwise authorized pursuant to this code and regulations adopted pursuant to this code for purposes other than profit.

Section 7151 explains that specified persons, if they have not been convicted of any violation of this code, must be issued, free of any charge or fee, a sport fishing license, that authorizes the licensee to take any fish, reptile, or amphibian anywhere in this state for purposes other than profit.

Section 7153 states that a sport fishing license is not required to take fish by any legal means, for any purpose other than profit, from a public pier, as defined by the commission, in the ocean waters of the state, or while angling at an aquaculture facility site that is registered. The term “ocean waters” is defined.

Section 7155 provides that California Indians who are bona fide registered members of the Yurok Indian Tribe may take fish, for subsistence purposes only, from the Klamath River between the mouth of that river and the junction of Tectah Creek with it, exclusive of tributaries, without regard to seasons, under five specified conditions.