I think it's also noteworthy that a sport fisherman neglecting to record a legal fish he retains while fishing legally is NOT apples to apples comparable to poaching for commercial purposes. Neither in principle nor in the eyes of the law, and for good reason. The two acts should never be mentioned in the same sentence. Wait... I just did that....

I agree with God Loves Ugly. I'm not sure a catch reporting app would be adopted by everyone, but I think it would improve participation, especially by younger anglers, many of whom have never mailed anything in their lives. Heck, even the old timers on the river carry smart phones anymore.

Not being familiar with WDFW's IT portfolio, I assume CRC data is being entered manually into an existing database. Hopefully, it's not a mainframe. The biggest technical hurdle for the app would be an ability to update catch records offline when no Internet connection is available, then synch them back up to the WDFW database when connectivity is restored later. This is becoming less and less important, with Internet-enabled cell signals being present on rivers becoming the rule more and more.

Another, less fancy option would be a set of spreadsheet templates, locked in all cells except those used to record catch data, that anglers could maintain, then periodically upload at WDFW's website. Even a mainframe system would be able to use data in that format. Of course, after a couple uploads, folks would start to realize that the paper system wasn't all that bad after all....