Kentucky fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits KDFWR publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- All persons must carry the proper license and permit to fish Kentucky waters unless an exemption applies. Residents and nonresidents age 15 and younger do not need a license or permit, except an elk hunt drawing application. The license year begins March 1 and runs through the last day of February. Unless exempt, an angler who intends to keep trout needs a trout permit. A trout permit is also required for every licensed angler on the Cumberland River from Wolf Creek Dam to the Tennessee line, its tributaries to the first riffle, and all of Hatchery Creek, even if the angler is otherwise fishing those waters.
- Residents
- A resident is anyone who has established a permanent legal residence in Kentucky and has lived here at least 30 days immediately before applying. Full-time students enrolled in a Kentucky school for at least a six-month term, and service personnel on permanent assignment in Kentucky, are also residents. Resident owners of farmland, their spouses, and dependent children may fish on that farmland without a license. Tenants and their spouses and dependent children may fish without a license on farmland where they live and work. Resident service members on furlough of more than three days may fish statewide without a license if they carry identification and furlough papers. The March 2026–February 2027 guide prints the resident and nonresident fee table. Dollar amounts are not quoted here.
- Nonresidents
- Everyone who does not meet the resident definition is a nonresident for licensing. Nonresident fishing licenses are sold, and the guide’s fee table is the price list. Youths 15 and younger, resident or nonresident, are exempt as stated above. A pay lake licensed by the department accepts either a Kentucky fishing license or a free permit issued by the operator. Short-term and combination prices are in the guide’s fee table.
- Free fishing days
- Free fishing days are the first Saturday and Sunday in June. In 2026 those dates are June 6–7. Residents and nonresidents do not need a license or permit that weekend. All other fishing regulations, including size and harvest limits, still apply. Fishing on private water still requires permission.
Seasons and closures
Year-round fishing
Traditional pole-and-line fishing is open year-round except on waterfowl refuges and where the guide states otherwise. Statewide size and daily limits apply to public and private waters unless a water is listed under special fishing regulations. A listed water replaces the statewide size or creel. One fishing day is one calendar day. The possession limit is two times the daily limit, excluding fish that have already been processed.
Trout streams and nontraditional seasons
Designated trout streams are open year-round. From October 1 through March 31, the catch-and-release rule on those streams prohibits harvest and allows artificial lures only. The 2026–27 season planner lists that catch-and-release period as October 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027. Bowfishing is open year-round with the water closures in the guide. Gigging and snagging of rough fish run February 1 through May 10. Tickling and noodling run June 1 through August 31 in daylight. Bullfrogs open at noon on the third Friday in May, which in 2026 is May 15, and run through October 31, with a noon-to-noon daily limit of 15.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
The statewide sport-fish rule does not set a barbless-hook requirement or a rod limit. Sport fish may be taken by hook and line in hand, rod in hand, jugging, set line, or sport trotline. A sport trotline may have no more than 50 single or multi-barbed baited hooks, at least 18 inches apart, and the line must be set at least 3 feet below the surface. A jug line and a set line may each have one single or multi-barbed hook. On some special waters, including the Green River Lake tailwater to the end of the concrete wall, fishing is limited to rod in hand with an artificial bait on a single hook or live bait on a single hook. Artificial-bait-only waters prohibit organic bait. The guide does not state a statewide barbless rule.
Rods per angler
There is no limit on the number of rods or poles per angler for hook-and-line fishing. One person may use no more than two sport trotlines, or 50 jug lines, or 25 set lines at one time. A boat may not use more than 50 jug lines. Each trotline, jug, and set line must carry the customer identification number from the fishing license, must be baited and checked and have fish removed at least once every 24 hours, and must be removed when fishing stops. Trotlines must be labeled on both ends. These devices are illegal within 200 yards below a dam and in department lakes under 500 acres except the lakes on Ballard, Peal, and Swan Lake WMAs. Traditional size and daily limits still apply to sport fish taken on them.
Nets
Live bait may be taken with a dip net up to 3 feet in diameter, a minnow trap up to 3 feet long and 18 inches in diameter with 1-inch openings, and a seine. Statewide, a seine may be up to 10 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 1/4-inch bar mesh. On the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and Kentucky and Barkley lakes, a seine may be up to 30 feet long and 6 feet deep with the same mesh. A sport cast net may be up to 20 feet in diameter with 1-inch bar mesh, except cast nets are prohibited on lakes under 500 acres, within 200 yards below a dam, and in Hatchery Creek. Sport fish taken in seines, dip nets, cast nets, or minnow traps must be released immediately. Gill nets are not recreational sport-fish gear in this guide.
Snagging
Snagging is a rapid drawing motion with a hand-held rod, line, and one single or treble hook, rather than enticing a fish with bait. The rod must have guides and a reel. The statewide season for gigging or snagging rough fish is February 1 through May 10. It is illegal to possess a gig on a stream, lake, or boat from November 1 through January 31. Snagging from a boat or platform is not legal. Sport fish, alligator gar, and lake or pallid sturgeon taken by snagging must be returned immediately. A snagged trophy catfish counts, and snagging must stop once one trophy catfish of any species is kept. Paddlefish and shovelnose sturgeon taken this way must be kept and may not be culled, and snagging stops when either daily limit is reached. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers below the dams have additional open areas and, on the Tennessee, a daily snagging aggregate. Snagging is not allowed on the Indiana side of the Ohio River or within 200 yards below an Ohio River dam on the Kentucky side.
Spearing and bow
Rough fish other than alligator gar, lake sturgeon, and pallid sturgeon may be taken year-round by longbow, crossbow, compound bow, recurve bow, or a pneumatic air-arrow device. Arrows need a barbed or retractable point and a retrieval line. The daily catfish aggregate by bow is 5. Bowfishing is prohibited on the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam to the Tennessee line, including Hatchery Creek and tributaries for a half mile, and on the small lakes named in the guide. Underwater spear fishing for rough fish is allowed year-round only in lakes of 1,000 acres or more, and the diver must be completely submerged. Gigging uses a pronged or barbed instrument on a rigid shaft and follows the February 1 through May 10 season. Gigging from a boat is legal only on lakes of 500 acres or more, and only in daylight. Hand grabbing, called tickling or noodling, is June 1 through August 31 during daylight, for rough fish, with a daily limit of 15 rough fish of which only 5 may be catfish.
Bait and live transport
No live fish, live bait fish, or live bait organism that is not native or established in Kentucky may be bought, sold, possessed, imported, used, or released. Blueback herring may not be imported or possessed. A sport-license holder may take live bait from public water and may possess up to 500 live bait fishes, including shad and herring where live shad is not prohibited, 500 crayfish, 25 spring lizards or dusky salamanders, 5 frogs other than bullfrogs, 5 tadpoles, 100 native lampreys, and 500 other aquatic invertebrates other than mussels. Live wild-caught invasive carp, herring, shad, mooneye, and goldeye may be used only in the water where they were collected and may not be transported by road. Sport fish may not be used as bait except redear sunfish under 6 inches. Federally listed and named state-protected darters and shiners may not be used as live bait. It is illegal to move bass between water bodies.
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
Statewide, largemouth and smallmouth bass are 6 a day and 12 in possession, with a 12-inch minimum. Kentucky (spotted) bass and Coosa bass are 6 a day and 12 in possession with no minimum. The daily and possession figures for black bass are singly or combined. Special-regulation waters replace these numbers. Fishing In Neighborhoods lakes use a 15-inch minimum and a 1-fish daily limit for largemouth bass. Fish under the size limit must be released immediately. Except for trout, anglers may cull until the daily limit is reached.
Crappie and sunfish
Black and white crappie are 20 a day and 40 in possession, with no statewide minimum. Redear sunfish are 20 a day and 40 in possession. Rock bass are 15 and 30. Yellow bass have no size or daily limit. Many lakes, including Rough River, print a 10-inch crappie minimum or a lower creel, and those listings replace the statewide rule. FINs lakes limit sunfish to 15 a day.
Walleye, muskie, and striped bass
Walleye, sauger, and their hybrids are 6 a day and 12 in possession, singly or combined, with a 14-inch minimum. Muskellunge are 1 a day and 2 in possession, with a 30-inch minimum. Striped bass are 5 a day and 10 in possession, with a 15-inch minimum. White bass and hybrid striped bass are 15 a day and 30 in possession, and no more than 5 fish in the daily limit may be longer than 15 inches. Chain pickerel are 5 and 10 with no minimum.
Catfish
Channel catfish under 28 inches, and blue and flathead catfish under 35 inches, have no statewide size or daily limit. A channel catfish 28 inches or longer is a trophy fish: 1 a day and 2 in possession. Blue and flathead catfish 35 inches or longer are 1 of each a day and 2 of each in possession. Several lakes, including Barren River, Carr Creek, Dewey, Fishtrap, Taylorsville, and Yatesville, use a 15-fish aggregate on channel and blue catfish with only one fish over 25 inches. Rough fish have no size or daily limit unless a statewide or special rule applies.
Trout and protected fish
Rainbow trout are 8 a day and 16 in possession with no minimum. Brown trout are 1 a day and 2 in possession with a 16-inch minimum. Cutthroat trout are 1 and 2 with a 20-inch minimum. Brook trout are catch-and-release except on the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam and the upper section of Hatchery Creek, which use the special rules. Lake sturgeon and alligator gar are catch-and-release. Shovelnose sturgeon are 2 a day and 4 in possession. Paddlefish are 2 and 4 with no statewide minimum. Trout may not be culled. A trout permit is required to keep trout unless the angler is license-exempt.