FREE Fishing License for Kids

To Whom It May Concern:

This is better than any Black Friday sale, going-out-of-business sale, or yard sale you’ve ever been to. I’m talking free ninety-nine, buy none and get one free, no strings attached. We are giving away 100% free youth combination (fishing/hunting) licenses! If that sounds crazy to you, it is, it’s crazy cool.

Thanks to a new, 100% donation-driven program called the Nevada Youth License Fund, fueled by thousands of generous individual donors we are giving anyone 12-17 years old who wants one, a free, 365-day fishing license while supplies last. That’s the headline. It’s also the message we want you to share with your friends and family, but before you do that, I want to tell you why we launched this program.

We want to make it easier for kids to have awe-inspiring outdoor experiences. Small moments outdoors, that become cherished memories, that last a lifetime. Plunging your fingers into a Styrofoam cup full of dark soil to dig out a squirmy nightcrawler. Hooking a big fish and fighting it for a few minutes before the line snaps unexpectedly. Watching an osprey circle above you, surveying your fishing hole before divebombing the water, and flying away with a fish in its talons. These are just a few examples of the formative outdoor experiences that you and I have had, that we don’t want today’s kids to miss out on.

The reality is kids, their parents, and even some of their grandparents, are missing out on a lot of memory making opportunities. Typically, in exchange for empty hours spent behind a screen. You’ve seen the family I’m talking about. They’re out to eat, seated at the table together, quietly waiting for their food. They’re quiet because everyone is on a phone, or a tablet, not saying a word to each other. Don’t look now, but here is a mirror. Have you ever in your life wasted time behind a screen that you’d like to have back? Me too, you’re not alone.

Fortunately, even though everything around us is built to fiercely compete for our time and attention, we get to choose what we do, and what we don’t do. This program exists to act as an incentive for kids and their families to choose fishing over something else, and it works. Not only does it work, but it’s wildly successful.

Since launching in June 2023, over 9,400 kids have received a free license through this program. For over 5,600 of these kids, it’s their first fishing license ever! In total, we’re looking at a 20% increase in youth licenses issued in 2024 compared to 2022. That’s thousands of kids, making memories outdoors with family and friends, that never would have otherwise.

So please, for the sake of the family at the dinner table, tell your friends, your family, and anyone else who is willing to listen about this program, and encourage them to take advantage of it, and go fishing!

That way the next time you’re out to eat, you might just overhear a teenager telling his family about the big fish that got away.

Bobby Jones
Outdoor Connection Coordinator
Nevada Department of Wildlife