#begin rant
Every time I pull out my CRC, I have to laugh. The current process is soooo bad.

Maybe improvements are in the works, and this has been posted on elsewhere, but I'll still rant - I will not be denied!

The WDFW relying on a group of people to send in CRCs is fraught with pitfalls and perils - a real statistician wouldn't do this. The statistics may be used to set seasons, limits, etc., but how reliable are they really?

Consider this: if everyone sent in a CRC, it's basically a $.50 increased license fee (yes, the price of a stamp recently went down - we won't be getting a rebate on those forever stamps we have). What would happen if the license fee was increased $.50, and the $ collected over several years went to improve the end user experience at the retailer? Specifically, when you get a new license, have a reader that can read the barcode at the top of your CRC - and automatically deduct the extra $ for not sending one in. In the future, as the CRC is improved, the reader can gather statistics (no, steelhead weren't fished for, yes, salmon were). Then the retiler can send in the cards en masse. Or we can go down the online route. Yes, there are issues with CRCs for different species and different dates, but nothing that can't be overcome. No, we don't want to just punch perforated circles out (hanging chad issue).

As a side note, I don't mind the extra $ collected if the CRC is not sent in. If it amounts to $100, I don't care what happens to it. If it is $100,000, does it go directly to improving the statistics collection process?

As anoter side note - why are the boxes on the CRC so small? If you're in an open skiff, and it's pouring down rain, the only dry place is where you are sitting. So you try that and your pen doesn't write with hard aluminum behind it, so you try to write on your thigh, and you get something down, but it may not be readable. And why is the list of area/zone codes not printed on the back of the CRC? There's a state seal there now - that's just wasted white space. So you fish several rivers and the have to look up a list of codes in the regs (which then get wet), if you remembered to bring them. And a CRC is in a wallet and sat on for 365 days. And maybe it goes through the wash. Then you try to peel it apart and the ink (needs improving) comes off and is now on the wrong side, and your entries are basically unreadable.

Maybe it's time for a citizens commission on JUST the CRC process. I'm sure the people who get the CRCs and have to enter the statistics have some ideas about improvement.

The state either needs to eliminate this requirement or improve the process. The current situation is unacceptable.
#end rant