Hunting and Fishing Licenses in Travis County

From the day you turn 17 you need a Texas fishing license to drop a line and a hunting license to hunt, with extra stamps riding along for certain animals. The exception most Travis residents miss: stand on the bank inside any Texas state park and cast and you owe nothing, McKinney Falls State Park inside Austin city limits included. No license, no stamp.

A license takes about five minutes to buy at tpwd.texas.gov, or in person at a sporting-goods store, bait shop, or gas station out toward the county line. When the rules don't cleanly answer a question (a fence-line dispute, a tract nobody can pin down), the people who patrol Travis County are the local game wardens, and TPWD lists the Travis County warden contacts directly. They ride those roads and will give you a straight answer.