Meet the artists behind your 2025 Fish and Game hard cards

In the world of hunting, fishing, and trapping, experiences are often the highest form of reward for the time spent pursuing fish and wild game and connecting to nature. Sportsmen and women—similar to artists—collate their own personal book of experiences, enthusiastically shared at the dinner table or around the campfire.

But at the intersection of outdoor experience and artistic expression lies some of the finest personal reflections of lifetimes spent hunting, fishing, and trapping—stories of big bucks, cold marshes, legendary fish, and steep mountains told in the form of acrylic paint or strokes from a colored pencil.

To celebrate the work of local outdoor artists, Idaho Fish and Game offers you a hard card—a durable, plastic card that fits right in your wallet, bino harness, or tacklebox—featuring original art created by local artists. Aside from it being just a handy way of keeping all your licenses and tags in one place, hard cards capture the beauty and unique expression of an artist who understands the same inexplicable joy that comes with hunting, fishing, and trapping as you.

As the official hard cards start to hit the market, we sit down with local artists Dallen Lambson and Vicki Conner to learn what experiences drive their imagination.

Modern-Day Audubon: Dallen Lambson

“If it’s walked on the North American continent, I’ve probably painted it.”

Like so many wildlife artists, experiences shape expression, and let’s just say Dallen Lambson has had his share of outdoor experiences. Born and raised and still calling Pocatello home, Lambson met the art world head on at an early age. Lambson’s father, Hayden, was also a renowned wildlife artist and passed down his love of painting to his third child of eight. 

But at a young age, Lambson not only gained valuable experiences in his dad’s studio but in the mountains as well. 

“Hunting was always a big part of the culture in my family,” Lambson said. 

And it wasn’t just rabbits and whitetails at first. Right out of the gate, Lambson successfully harvested a bull Shiras moose as a teenager, followed by a rare opportunity to hunt a mountain goat, which just so happens to be the subject of his 2025 hard card design. More on that later.

In the years to follow, Lambson found himself continuously back in the mountains pursuing, as he puts it, mostly mule deer and elk and mostly in the great state of Idaho. In addition to big game species, Lambson also admits finding enjoyment in chasing ruffed grouse and cottontail rabbits with his dogs.

Now, not trying to split hares here, but a frantic rabbit ain’t exactly as grandiose as a glittering white goat basking in the alpenglow. And I think Lambson might agree.

His depiction of the contemplative, sure-footed goat—titled “Sunny Delight”—was painted using oil paints on an 18-by-24-inch canvas.

“Before I started, I wanted to create a sense of the goat being way up there,” Lambson said, as anyone who’s ever pursued mountain goats can probably attest.

Lambson’s mountain goat, stopping its graze momentarily to gaze across at some unseen rival peak, or perhaps a clumsy, rock-dislodging hunter, is beautifully tinged by a misty sun. To see this piece in full scale, as well as several other Dallen Lambson original paintings and drawings, check out his website www.dallenlambsonart.com. Be sure to follow Dallen Lambson on Instagram and Facebook.

Plenty of Fish with Vicki Conner 

Veteran fly anglers don’t begin their days’ work by stomping out into the riffles and throwing whatever fly was knotted to their tippet from the last time they went out. They start by carefully studying the water’s insects—and more specifically, turning over rocks. Once a fish’s potential food source has been predicated, the fly angler rummages through his or her fly box to carefully “match the hatch” as the kids say.

It's that same expert-level attention to detail that Eagle artist Vicki Conner applies to the canvas.

“The details can be maddening!” Conner said, putting it lightly.

Now imagine 300 hours’ worth of details. That’s approximately how long Conner says it took her to complete that quintet of sockeyes you see on this year’s Fish and Game hard card license.

Vicki Conner has been painting and drawing nearly all her life. She and her husband, Don, got married shortly after high school and moved to Alabama while Don was in the army. It was there, amidst a thriving art community within the military base, that Conner began to hone her craft and skill.

Conner and her husband eventually moved back home to the Treasure Valley, where the two began exploring Idaho’s wide array of rivers and streams. For Don, a bamboo flyrod craftsman, and Vicky, now a professional wildlife artist, it was paradise. 

“My very first drawing was a brown trout that Don had caught on the Owyhee River,” Conner said. “I started by mostly drawing other fish, birds, insects, botanicals, and rocks.” 

Yes, even rocks. Spend enough time wading around a swift river or stream, and you might be surprised how often your eyes are looking down into the water at them.

Conner’s attention to detail in her artwork goes as far as capturing the rocks and insects that play second fiddle to the colorful fish in the foregrounds. It might be a little difficult to see what I mean if you’re looking at your 2-by-3 inch hard card, but if you observe the artwork’s original 16-by-24-inch canvas, your eyes will quickly trace the sockeye’s belly to the delicately painted cobbles along the streambed. 

“I’ve always been a rockhound,” she said, adding that the rocks depicted in the sockeye painting were actually taken from her backyard. 

Although Conner notes missing the art community back in Alabama, she quickly points out that one of the most rewarding parts of painting Idaho’s fish is Idaho’s fishing community. 

“I’ve been so grateful to work with local fly shops here,” she said. “They are a great place to display my artwork and have been really supportive.” 

Next time you’re poking around a fly shop between Boise and Bozeman, keep your eyes peeled for Vicki’s insignia—a small letter “V” adorned with antennae—imprinted in the corner of a classic Western fishing scene done in colored pencil. 

But, if you can’t wait until then, you can help yourself to Vicki’s full catalog of artwork, ranging from classic flies to etchings of stoneflies to custom portraits of man’s best friend, all available on her Facebook.