Never, never miss the opportunity to fish!

You wouldn't fish without your fishing license but you would drive without your drivers license?

Of course, I'm kidding but you do see the irony, right?

Sooner....lol
I understand the point your making, unfortunately I did not realize I was without my my wallet until I arrived at the lake. That is why I drove very cautiously on the way home. Unfortunately when your single as in my case, I had no way of having someone pick up my wallet and bring it to me. I sure was'nt going to walk home when it takes me 30 minutes to drive to that location.

I think I am once bitten twice shy about fishing without a license. I had an early in life lesson of fishing without a license that has stuck with me all these years after it occurred. In around 1984 I joined two or three friends who drove from Fort Worth to PK to fish for trout bellow the dam. We were having a great day. We saw the Game Warden walk down to check on the fisherman. No problem if you have your license right?
I got mine out of my wallet and handed it to him not given it a second thought. He stared at it and said something like " well this is fine son but your not hunting." It was at that moment that I realized for the first year since I turned old enough to be required to buy a license I only purchased a hunting license. Until that year I had always purchased a combo license.
I remember when I went in to buy my license I was just shy of the cost of the combo and telling myself when hunting season ends I will buy my fishing license. Well, the trout are stocked at approximately the same time as hunting season. That ticket even back in the day was painful. And it was a hassle to take care of if memory serves.
To summarize, it just isn't worth it to me. I am going to make a copy of both and stick them in my tackle box just in case this ever happens again. I don't know if that will suffice for the warden or the police for that matter but not having either on me sure changed my plans that day.

Life altering experience for sure! It has happened to me too - forgetting the wallet I mean. Now, I am very anal about pacing it before I depart. Have forgotten the wallet on occasion - finding out at the checkout window at Burger King.

pun intended?

I would not have let that stop me. I forgot my boat keys once when I was younger, and hot wired the boat to avoid missing out. Now I super glue my key in so it cant be removed. Safety reasons are the only reasons to miss out on fishing.

the game warden asked me for my license on Sunday, ya never know..

That is one reason I purchase mine online, I get a purchased receipt in my email. If I were to forget my wallet I normally dont forget my phone, then all you have to do is show the receipt and you are good to go. Works for everything that doesnt require a tag.

tworod,
That sounds like the smart way to go. I am so far behind the 8 ball on technology it is not funny. In 2004 I was fishing at Rocky Creek Fishing Barge at Lake Benbrook and I asked a guy next to me if he had any information on the sand bass running in the local creeks. He told me to go online and look up the Texas Fishing Forum to find anything fishing related in Texas.
I had just purchased my first computer that year; I have always been behind the curve, hell let me be honest I am not even in the ballpark with most of you folks in regards to todays technology. I did not know until now that you could verify your license was valid by way of your phone. I really appreciate all who have participated in this thread. Everyone has been so civil, that was really my only concern.
Soonersorlater cracked me up with the realization there may be a ticket being written right now due to the original admission of driving without a license... Man that caused me to plead my case real quick...
He is absolutely right, if I had come on here and showed fish or even one fish that I acknowledged I caught without a valid license, I think most of us myself included would push for justice to be pursued against the lawbreaker. Sooner made a good point, where is the line of unlawful behavior on social media?
The main point I had hoped to learn and the original purpose of this thread was what is the legal requirement of proof of having purchased a fishing license and
is a paper copy of your fishing license sufficient to cover you from getting a ticket. Thanks everyone for your input, no judgment from me on whatever your stance was if you were in the same situation. I thought when I joined in 2004 the TFF was a great place to share fishing information and learn from each other and 11 years later in 2015 that still holds true.