Anytime you fish in Canadian waters you will be required to have either an enhanced driver license or passport, and you will need a Canadian Sportsman’s card and fishing license. A Sportsman’s card is good for three years and you can choose to purchase the license annually, or purchase a license that is good for three years to coincide with the renewal of the Sportsman’s card.
Note: Your sportsmans Card will arrive in the mail, but you will need to print your license. You can always come back, log in, and print your license at another time as the information is saved, but why not be prepared to print before you follow the tutorial.
Here are the steps to acquire both a Canadian Sportsman’s card and fishing license
Open a internet browser and go to the following web address:You will first need to create an account so click on “My Account”
Then, check the box that reads ‘I acknowledge and accept the privacy notification,’ then click ‘Don’t have an account? Create one’
Once here, select ‘Create with New Outdoors Card’
- https://www.huntandfishontario.com/Account/RegisterNewOutdoorsCard
- Enter your first and last name, your zip code, and your date of birth (DOB)
- Special note: you’ll need to enter your DOB starting with the year, then month, then day (it’s a Canadian thing)
- Click continue once you reviewed the form for accuracy
- Assuming you’re not, click ‘No.’
- Assuming your residence is not, select ‘No’ as well
- This declares you are Non-Canadian, then click the ‘Next’ button
- Also, you’ll need to select whether or not you would like to be included in the Email updates and included in Informational Emails or not
- Your preferred language will autofill to ‘English;’ and your first and last name will autofill as well.
- Select your 1.) Eye color (required), 2.) Gender (required), and your Height (required). Adding a Phone number is optional.
- For ‘Residential Address’ Select your 1.) Country (required), 2.) Street (required), 3.) City (required).
- For ‘Mailing Address select ‘Same As Residential’ if this applies
- Click ‘I certify the information is accurate….’ and then,
- Click ‘Finish’ (note: when you select this you will see a screen that says ‘My Active Licenses’ and of course you will not have any yet.
- Click ‘Fishing’
- Select ‘Outdoors Card’
- Click NR (non-resident) Fishing License
- Special notes: firstly, Canadians spell License with a “C” as in ‘Licence’ which is what you want. Also, you have the choice between purchasing a 1-yr or 3-yr license and a choice between a standard or ‘Conservation’ license. The conservation license, in short, means you can keep half as many fish.
- If you choose the ‘Conservation license you can always come back and upgrade (when you decide to take that trip of a lifetime, that would be a good time for an upgrade :)).
- Note: There will also be a charge for ‘HST.’ HST is Harmonized sales tax. Your basic sales tax as you might expect.
- Once you’ve added the items you want, click ‘Checkout.’
- By clicking ‘Same as Client Mailing Address’ under Billing Address your information will auto-populate from your account information.
- Enter your payment information
- Click ‘I certify...’ again, and
- Click ‘Complete Transaction’ and unless your credit card flags the purchase for being out of Country you should expect your Sportsman's Card in the mail, and
- Print your license and enjoy fishing Canadian waters
Tight Lines and Polite Fishing,
Article written by Mike Hiller