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Reduced Fee Hunting and Fishing Licences

A 30% service-connected disability — or being 65 or older with a disability of any degree — puts your combination fishing licence at $6.90 and every hunting licence at the youth rate.

Verified August 18, 2026

What this benefit is

A 30% service-connected disability — or being 65 or older with a disability of any degree — puts your combination fishing licence at $6.90 and every hunting licence at the youth rate.

What it's worth: Combination fishing licence at $6.90; every hunting licence at the youth rate

  • The statute fixes the reduced combination fishing licence at $6.90 and sets hunting licences at the youth licence fee, which is itself set elsewhere and changes.
  • Washington licence fees rose in July 2025, so the gap between the reduced rate and the standard rate is wider than older guidance suggests.

Who is entitled to it

  • You were honorably discharged from military service.
  • Your service-connected disability is 30% or more.
  • You are 65 or older.
  • You have a service-connected disability.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Attach the one-page VA disability percentage rating letter showing your name and rating clearly — WDFW asks for that specific page rather than a full claim file.
  2. 2If you are 65 or over, apply on the age route even if your rating is well under 30%. It is a separate test and the percentage does not apply to it.
  3. 3If you live out of state, apply anyway — the nonresident version is priced at the Washington resident rate and saves more than the resident version does.
Form
Veterans reduced fee application
File with
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
Annual
Claimed once a year.
CorrectionThe 30% figure is only one of the two routes. A veteran aged 65 or over with a service-connected disability of ANY degree qualifies on age alone. Summaries lead with the percentage, so the older veteran with a low rating is the one who most often never applies.
Worth knowingA nonresident veteran who meets the test is charged what a non-disabled Washington resident pays. Because nonresident fees are several times resident fees, the out-of-state veteran gains more from this than the Washington one does.
Worth knowingThis reduces a fee; it does not remove one. You still buy a licence, and you still buy any catch record card, tag or federal stamp the licence does not include.
Known gapWe publish the $6.90 combination fishing figure the statute sets and not a hunting figure, because the hunting rate is expressed as the youth licence fee, which is fixed elsewhere and moves independently.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.