Indiana fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits DNR publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- With a few exceptions, a valid Indiana fishing license is required to fish in public lakes, streams, rivers, tributaries, and boundary waters. A signed paper or signed electronic copy must be in possession and shown on request. To fish for or take trout or salmon from public waters, a trout/salmon stamp is also required. Annual licenses and stamp privileges run from April 1 through March 31 of the following year. A 2026 annual license is valid April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027.
- Residents
- A resident has established a true, fixed, and permanent home and primary residence in Indiana for 60 consecutive days before buying a license and does not claim residency for hunting, trapping, or fishing in another state or country. The fee table updated September 4, 2026 lists a resident annual fishing license at $23, a one-day fishing license that includes trout and salmon at $10, and a trout/salmon stamp at $11. Residents at least 64 who were born after March 31, 1943 need a senior fishing license; both the $3 annual senior license and the $23 Senior Fish-for-Life include the trout/salmon stamp. Residents born before April 1, 1943 do not need a fishing license. Residents and nonresidents under 18 do not need a fishing license or trout/salmon stamp.
- Nonresidents
- Everyone who does not meet the resident test is a nonresident. The same fee table lists a nonresident annual fishing license at $60, a one-day license that includes trout and salmon at $15, a seven-day license at $35, and a trout/salmon stamp at $11. Nonresident youth 17 or younger are exempt from a fishing license. There is a $1 tech fee for a license bought by mail, at a DNR property, or at a retailer, and a $3 tech fee plus a card fee for an online or app purchase.
- Free fishing days
- Free fishing days in 2026 are May 10, June 6–7, and September 26. On those days Indiana residents do not need a fishing license or a trout/salmon stamp to fish public waters. Seasons, bag limits, and size limits still apply. The free-day waiver is for Indiana residents.
Seasons and closures
Inland trout streams
Inland lakes have no closed season for trout. Inland streams open at 6 a.m. local time on the last Saturday in April and run through December 31. Catch-and-release applies to all trout streams from January 1 through April 14. A short closure from April 15 until opening day applies only to the stocking streams listed in the guide, including parts of the Pigeon River, Little Elkhart River, and the other named creeks. Three Elkhart County stream sections are catch-and-release and artificial lures or flies only all year. A listed water replaces the statewide size or bag.
Lake Michigan and boundary rivers
Lake Michigan and its tributaries are freshwater rules in the Indiana guide, not a separate saltwater license. Foul-hooked trout and salmon in those tributaries must be released. No fishing is allowed in the East Race in South Bend or within 100 feet of listed fish ladders. The Ohio River main stem may be fished with an Indiana or Kentucky license; a tributary or embayment requires the license of that state. On the Wabash where it forms the Illinois line, either state’s license is recognized on the river proper, not on tributaries or the other state’s bank. There is no general license reciprocity on the rest of the Lake Michigan state line.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
The 2026–2027 guide does not set a statewide barbless-hook rule. Pole or hand-line fishing is limited to three poles or hand lines at a time. Each line may have no more than three hooks, three artificial lures, or a mix of three. A multi-pronged hook, or two or more single hooks holding one bait, counts as one hook. An umbrella rig may have hooks or lures on only three arms. From March 15 through April 20, the East Fork White River from Williams Dam to the Huron and Williams Road bridge is limited to one single hook or one artificial lure, with hook-gap caps in the guide. Lake Michigan tributaries have their own hook limits, including single-hook size caps on the St. Joseph River below Twin Branch Dam.
Rods per angler
Three poles or hand lines is the active-gear cap. A limb line or drop line is a separate device with one hook, and no more than 10 may be fished. They must be tagged and checked at least every 24 hours, and they are illegal within 300 yards of a dam. One trotline with no more than 50 hooks is allowed, tagged and checked at least every 24 hours. Trotlines are illegal in Lake Michigan and within 200 yards of a dam. Float fishing allows up to five floats with one hook each, in constant sight, and is not allowed on lakes and reservoirs. Ice holes may not be more than 12 inches across. Tip-ups must be tagged and kept in sight.
Nets
Landing nets, gaffs, and grab hooks may be used only to land a legally caught fish, not as the method of catch. Minnows and crayfish may be taken with a seine no larger than 12 feet long and 4 feet deep with mesh no larger than 1/2 inch stretch, a dip net no larger than 3 feet square with mesh no larger than 1/2 inch stretch, or a trap no longer than 24 inches with an opening no larger than 2 inches. Cast nets may be no larger than 20 feet in diameter with mesh stretch no larger than 3/4 inch, except the larger mesh allowed for gizzard and threadfin shad on listed waters. Nets, traps, and seines may not be used to take fish within 200 yards of a dam, and minnows may not be taken within 500 yards of a dam. Smelt in Lake Michigan may be taken March 1 through May 30 with one seine or net no larger than 12 feet long and 6 feet deep, or a dip net no larger than 12 feet in diameter.
Snagging
Snagging, dragging or jerking a hook through the water to hook a fish on contact, is illegal in Indiana public waters, including the Ohio River. Paddlefish caught on sport gear must be released. Trout and salmon that are foul-hooked, meaning not hooked in the mouth, cannot be kept. On the Lake Michigan tributaries defined in the guide, any trout or salmon must be hooked in the mouth, and a foul-hooked fish must be returned to that water. One snare may be used for suckers, carp, gar, and bowfin, only between sunrise and sunset, and not on the Ohio River.
Spearing and bow
A bow and arrow or crossbow may be used year-round, day or night, for invasive carp, bowfin, buffalo, common carp, gar, shad, and suckers in streams, rivers, and still waters. A fishing license is required. A gig, fish spear, spear gun, or underwater spear may be used year-round for those same species in still waters and in the large-river sections listed in the guide. Fish spears and gigs are closed on the Tippecanoe River from a half mile below its junction with Big Creek upstream to Oakdale Dam. On Lake Michigan, bowfin, buffalo, carp, gar, shad, and suckers may be taken with a bow and arrow. Possession of a spear, gig, gaff, bowfishing gear, crossbow, grab hook, spear gun, club, snag hook, or underwater spear is prohibited in and next to the Lake Michigan tributaries named in the guide, including Trail Creek, Burns Ditch, and the listed Calumet and Deep River sections.
Bait and live transport
Live fish may not be released into public water without a stocking permit, and dumping aquarium fish counts as stocking. Wild fish may be used as live bait if they were caught legally and meet size and bag rules. Goldfish may be used as live bait. Carp may not be used as live bait. Live alewives may be collected and used only on Lake Michigan and may not be transported away from it. Live gizzard and threadfin shad may be used only on the lakes and the Ohio River main stem listed in the guide and may not be transported away from where they were collected. Do not release minnows after fishing. No more than 100 crayfish may be transported across the state line in 24 hours unless they are raised commercially. Listed invasive fish, including bighead, black, and silver carp, round goby, and snakehead, must be killed immediately if possessed. It is illegal to take live fish from public water for release elsewhere without a permit.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Black bass
In lakes, largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass have a daily bag of 5 combined and a 14-inch minimum, unless a water is listed as an exception. In rivers and streams the daily bag is 5 combined, no fish from 12 to 15 inches may be kept, and no more than two fish over 15 inches may be kept. In Lake Michigan the daily bag is 3 combined with a 14-inch minimum. Possession is two times the daily bag and does not apply to fish processed and stored at the angler’s primary residence. Named lakes with slot or trophy rules replace these defaults.
Walleye, sauger, and saugeye
The combined daily bag is 6 walleye, saugeye, and sauger. Walleye must be at least 14 inches south of State Road 26 and at least 16 inches north of State Road 26, with the lake exceptions printed in the guide, including 14 inches at Bass Lake and Wolf Lake. Sauger and saugeye have no size limit except 14 inches for saugeye at Huntingburg, Glenn Flint, and Sullivan lakes. The Ohio River uses its own rules.
Crappie, bluegill, and sunfish
Bluegill have no statewide bag or size limit. Redear sunfish are 25 a day with no minimum. Crappie are 25 a day with no statewide minimum, except 9 inches at Dogwood Lake and Hardy Lake. J.C. Murphey Lake limits bluegill, redear, and crappie to 25 a day singly or combined. White bass and hybrid striped bass are 12 combined, with no more than two over 17 inches. Striped bass are 2 a day with no minimum. Yellow perch have no statewide limit except 15 a day on Lake Michigan.
Catfish and trout
In rivers and streams, channel, blue, and flathead catfish have no bag limit, a 13-inch minimum, and a one-fish cap on a blue catfish of at least 35 inches, a flathead of at least 35 inches, and a channel catfish of at least 28 inches. In lakes the daily bag is 10 with no minimum and the same one-oversize caps, except no bag limit for channel catfish at Turtle Creek Reservoir. Inland brook, rainbow, and brown trout are 5 a day combined, of which no more than one may be a brown trout, with a 7-inch minimum that does not apply in lakes except the 18-inch brown trout waters named in the guide. Lake Michigan and its tributaries use a separate trout and salmon bag.
Lake Michigan trout and salmon
On Lake Michigan and the tributaries covered by that section, Atlantic, Chinook, coho, and pink salmon, brown trout, lake trout, and steelhead have a combined daily bag of 5, of which no more than 3 may be lake trout, and a 14-inch minimum. Yellow perch are 15 a day on Lake Michigan only, with no minimum, and that bag applies while fishing Indiana water even if another state’s license is also held. Lake whitefish are 12 a day with no minimum. A trout/salmon stamp is required in addition to the fishing license when the angler is not exempt.