Date:  23 June 2025

Anglers will notice a few changes when buying a Taupō fishing licence for the 2025/26 season.

The old licence platform was launched nearly a decade ago and served anglers well. When introduced it marked an important shift to online sales, allowing anglers greater freedom to buy fishing licences. Since then, technology has moved on and the aging system needed to be updated.

A new platform

A new modern online licence sales platform has been developed. The new system extends the benefits of an online store, bringing additional benefits to anglers including an improved user interface and greater stability.

At its core, the new online store will offer the opportunity to create a ‘user profile’ which will make managing fishing licences easy. This works well for people who want to keep track of multiple short-term fishing licences (week or 24-hour) or season licence holders who want an easy way to purchase each year. People who hunt and fish can also benefit, with a facility to manage their hunting permits and Taupō fishing licences from the same profile page.

For anglers who prefer a simpler approach, they can choose to buy their licence using a ‘guest’ function.

Licences sold online only

Taupō fishing licences will now only be sold through the online store, offering anglers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week convenience. As part of the changes the licence agent option has been discontinued. This means shops and other outlets will no longer be selling Taupō fishing licences.

The cost of including agent functionality within the new system was prohibitive. It would have doubled the cost of the project, which in turn would have placed significant cost pressure on our fishing licence fees, leading to increased cost to anglers.

For those who are unfamiliar with online shopping, we have created a simple guide to take you through the process:

How to buy your Taupō fishing licence

If you have problems buying your licence,  contact DOC.

• Phone: 0800 275 362
• Email: fishlicence@doc.govt.nz