Always liked the March 1st start day. Mainly because thats my birthday so it made it easy to remember to buy a license. I am also going to go the 5 year path with the plastic card. I hate the paper license and destroy at least a couple every year. I always carried 1 with me but I just started signing a copy and taking a picture of it on my phone. A wildlife officer told me that was acceptable as long as it was signed and you could see all the info.