Michigan 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
- A license is required to target fish, amphibians, crustaceans, or reptiles in Michigan public waters. Anyone 17 or older must buy a fishing license. Anglers under 17 may fish without a license and must still follow every rule. A person who turns 17 during the April 1–March 31 season needs a license. Any adult who is actively assisting a minor must have a fishing license, though an unlicensed adult may help land a fish, unhook it, rig the rod, bait the hook, fix a tangle, or cast if the young angler stays an active participant. The license and the identification used to buy it must be carried. Annual licenses run from March 1 through March 31 of the next year. The 2026 license year sold starting April 1, 2026, is valid through March 31, 2027.
- Residents
- A resident lives in a settled or permanent home in Michigan and intends to remain, or serves full-time in the U.S. military and is officially stationed in Michigan or keeps Michigan residency. Owning land in Michigan is not enough. The digest lists a resident annual all-species license at $26, a senior annual license at $11 for residents 65 or older or residents who are legally blind, and notes that a $1 surcharge is included in those prices. Fees can change with the consumer price index after the digest is printed. Active-duty military who kept Michigan residency, 100-percent disabled veterans, and people with a developmental disability as defined in the mental health code can have the fishing-license fee waived.
- Nonresidents
- The digest lists a nonresident annual all-species license at $76, including the $1 surcharge. The daily license is $10 for a resident or nonresident and lasts 24 hours. Nonresident active-duty military officially stationed in Michigan qualify for resident rates. A voluntary youth license for age 16 and under is $2 and is not required.
- Free fishing days
- Free Fishing Weekends in 2026 are February 14–15 and June 13–14. License fees are waived both days for residents and visitors, on inland and Great Lakes waters, for all species. All fishing regulations still apply. A Recreation Passport is not required to enter state parks and boating access sites on those weekends. The winter weekend is the Saturday and Sunday of Presidents Day weekend, and the summer weekend is the Saturday and Sunday after the first full week of June.
Seasons and closures
Great Lakes are freshwater
Michigan has no saltwater fishery in these rules. The Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Marys, St. Clair, and Detroit rivers are freshwater. Inland waters are everything else, including tributaries. Seasons, size limits, and spearing rules on the Great Lakes often differ from inland lakes and from designated trout streams. A person fishing a border water and holding more than one state’s license may possess only one license’s limit while in transit, and Michigan limits apply while fishing Michigan waters.
License year and possession
The fishing license year used for age and for the sturgeon annual limit runs April 1 through March 31. Annual licenses themselves are valid March 1 through March 31 of the following year. Daily possession is what is caught and kept in one calendar day, including fish eaten or given away. In addition, an angler may possess two more daily limits from earlier days if those fish are canned, smoked, dried, or frozen. That extra-possession rule does not apply to lake sturgeon or muskellunge.
Check the digital book
The DNR said on September 10, 2026, that inland trout and salmon and Menominee River lake sturgeon changes are in effect and are not in the printed 2026 digest. The current text is the digital regulations at Michigan.gov/DNRRegs and in the Hunt Fish app.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
Hook-and-line gear is limited to 6 hooks or lures per person. All hooks on one artificial bait, or on a night-crawler harness, count as 1 hook, except crappie or perch rigs and umbrella rigs, where each hook counts. Hooks must be baited, fished with a bead, or attached to an artificial bait. A fish not hooked in the mouth must be released immediately. From August 1 through May 31, multi-point hooks larger than 3/8 inch from point to shank, and single hooks larger than 1/2 inch, are unlawful on all streams, including Great Lakes tributaries. There is no statewide barbless rule. Many gear-restricted streams require single-point hooks of 1/2 inch or less, or smaller trebles only when they are on a body bait, plug, spinner, or spoon. Drop-shotting, a weight below a single hook tied to the main line, is lawful on inland lakes, drowned river mouths, the Great Lakes, and connecting waters, and is not lawful on rivers or streams.
Rods per angler
No more than 3 lines per person, including tip-ups. Every line must be under immediate control. Tip-ups must be marked with the owner’s name and address. The 3-line and 6-hook caps apply together.
Nets
A hand net may be used to land a legally hooked fish. A gaff may be used to land a legally hooked fish except on a designated trout stream, and not on a fish that will be released or is not legal to keep. Dip nets and hand nets may be used for bowfin, carp, longnose gar, smelt, and suckers in waters that are not designated trout streams. A cast net may be used for minnows, alewife, smelt, and shad on the Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit, St. Clair, and St. Marys rivers, and is prohibited on inland waters. Seines are only for minnows and may not exceed 12 feet by 4 feet. It is unlawful to use a net to take fish within 100 feet of a dam; a landing net for a legally hooked fish is allowed.
Snagging
It is unlawful to snag a fish, attempt to snag a fish, or possess a snagged fish. Snagging means the fish does not take, or have a chance to take, the hook voluntarily in its mouth.
Spearing and bow
Hand, rubber, or spring-propelled spears, and bow and arrow or crossbow, may be used for listed species on waters that are not designated trout lakes or streams and are not Michigan–Wisconsin boundary waters. Year-round species include bowfin, bullheads, burbot, carp, catfish, cisco, drum, gizzard shad, goldfish, grass carp, longnose gar, smelt, suckers, and whitefish. Northern pike and muskellunge may be taken with a hand-propelled spear through the ice from December 1 through March 15 on those same waters, with a long list of waters closed to that gear. Underwater spearfishing for lake trout, northern pike, and walleye is a separate Great Lakes fishery and requires the free annual underwater spearfishing license. A rubber- or spring-propelled spear must be used while submerged and attached to a line no longer than 20 feet. Artificial lights may be used for fish, but not to spear frogs. Fishing other than hook-and-line is prohibited in National Park sites.
Bait and live transport
Baitfish may be used only in the water where they were collected. Any legally taken fish or frog may be used as bait except lampreys and live carp or goldfish. Minnows for personal use require a fishing license and may be taken only with hook-and-line, seines, dip nets, hand nets, and traps, and only used where collected. On designated trout waters, minnows may be taken only during the open trout season, by hook-and-line or minnow trap. Live nonnative crayfish, including red swamp and rusty crayfish, may not be possessed or used as bait; rusty crayfish may be kept live only for personal consumption. Chumming with organic material is unlawful on the stream types listed in the digest. Importing or moving live fish, including viable eggs, requires a public-water stocking permit. A long list of live invasive fish, crayfish, and mollusks may not be possessed or transported.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Bass
Largemouth and smallmouth bass, in combination, have a 14-inch minimum and a daily possession limit of 5. Catch-and-immediate-release is allowed all year unless the water is closed to fishing. The possession season is the Saturday before Memorial Day through December 31 on other waters, including the Great Lakes, except listed exceptions, and the third Saturday in June through December 31 on Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. The DNR’s March 2, 2026 license notice states the 2026 statewide possession opener as Saturday, May 23, with the Lake St. Clair exception.
Walleye and northern pike
The general table sets walleye at 15 inches and 5 a day, and northern pike at 24 inches and 2 a day. Seasons on that table are May 15–March 15 for Upper Peninsula Great Lakes and inland waters and the St. Marys River; the last Saturday in April through March 15 for Lower Peninsula inland waters; and open all year on Lower Peninsula Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. Many waters replace the pike or walleye rule with a slot or a different bag. Those exceptions are in the county notes, not in the statewide line.
Catfish and sunfish
Channel catfish are 12 inches and 10 a day, open all year. Flathead catfish are 15 inches and 5 a day, open all year. Sunfishes, which the digest groups as black and white crappie, bluegill, green and hybrid sunfish, longear, pumpkinseed, redear, rock bass, and warmouth, have no size limit and a daily possession of 25 in any combination, open all year. Burbot are 5 a day with no size limit. Smelt are 2 gallons. The yellow perch row in the general table did not stay aligned in the text of the PDF, so this summary does not state a single statewide perch number.
Muskellunge and lake sturgeon
Muskellunge, including tiger muskellunge, are 42 inches on the general rule, with exceptions in the notes, and only 1 may be kept per angler per license year. Harvest must be registered within 24 hours. The possession season opens the first Saturday in June. In 2026 that Saturday was June 6, which matches the DNR’s March 2 license notice. Lake sturgeon are hook-and-line only except the special Black Lake winter spear season, and harvest is 1 fish per angler per year from April 1 through March 31, only on waters listed in the sturgeon table, with registration required. A September 10, 2026 DNR notice changed Menominee River lake sturgeon seasons and is not in the printed 2026 book.
Great Lakes trout and salmon
On the Great Lakes and the connecting waters, Atlantic salmon, brook trout, brown trout, chinook, coho, lake trout, pink salmon, rainbow trout (steelhead), and splake are open all year, with a 10-inch minimum and separate lake trout and splake size and season rules by management unit. The daily possession limit is 5 in any combination, no more than 3 of any one species, except that up to 5 may be coho, chinook, or pink salmon. On the St. Marys River, 5 additional pink salmon are allowed. Inland trout and salmon limits are by stream and lake type, not one statewide bag. Fisheries Order changes posted September 10, 2026, for inland trout and salmon are in the digital regulations, not the printed digest.