Minnesota 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
- Residents age 16 through 89 need a current Minnesota fishing license unless an exemption applies. A printed or electronic license is enough. Residents under 16 and residents 90 and older do not need one. All nonresidents need a license, except a nonresident under 16 may fish without one if a parent or guardian is licensed. The 2026–27 license year runs March 1, 2026, through February 28, 2027. Anyone fishing Minnesota waters of Lake Superior needs an angling license and a trout/salmon stamp validation unless an exemption applies.
- Residents
- A resident must maintain a legal residence in Minnesota for at least 60 consecutive days before buying a license. Residents 21 or older must show a current Minnesota driver’s license or public-safety ID, or a receipt for an application that is at least 60 days old. The 2026 booklet lists the adult annual individual angling license at $25. A resident conservation license, which cuts bag limits in half and rounds down, is $17 and is sold only to residents. A trout/salmon stamp is an added validation when the species rules require it; the booklet prints $10 with that stamp. Licenses, including free ones, generally add a $1 issuing fee.
- Nonresidents
- Every nonresident needs a license except a child under 16 fishing with a licensed parent or guardian. The booklet lists the nonresident annual individual angling license, age 18 and over, at $51, and says a $5 nonresident surcharge is included. A nonresident under 16 may instead buy a youth license to keep a personal limit. Nonresident youth ages 16 and 17 are exempt from the trout/salmon stamp and the spearing license. Short-term nonresident licenses are in the same fee table.
- Free fishing days
- The 2026 booklet lists three resident free-fishing weekends. Take a Mom Fishing Weekend is May 9–10, 2026, and resident mothers may fish without a license. Take a Kid Fishing Weekend is June 5–7, 2026, and residents 16 and older may fish without a license if they are with children younger than 16. Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend in the booklet is January 16–18, 2027, on the same accompanied-child rule. A separate June 1, 2026 DNR release said license sales paused from 12 a.m. June 2 through 11:59 p.m. June 8, 2026, and anglers could fish without a license during that pause. Seasons and bag limits stayed in effect. The January 12, 2026 release dated that winter’s Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend as January 17–19, 2026, which is a different weekend from the 2027 date in the booklet.
Seasons and closures
Inland opener and closed water
The 2026 fishing opener on the DNR seasons page is May 9. Walleye, sauger, northern pike, and northeast-zone bass use that date. Muskellunge opens June 6. Some waters close in spring to protect spawning fish, and those dates are posted at the regulations page rather than fixed in the booklet. Special and experimental regulations on pages 45–64 of the booklet replace the inland table.
Border waters
The booklet says Canada, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota border waters have their own seasons and limits, on pages 66–77, and those rules are not the inland table. Anglers on a border water need the border chapter for that line, including different line and hook counts. Wisconsin-border and other border walleye limits in the booklet are not the inland limit of 6.
Lake Superior
Minnesota waters of Lake Superior and tributaries below the posted boundaries are a separate regulation area, not the inland table. Brook trout and splake are 1 fish from April 11–September 30, at 20 inches, inside a combined trout limit of 5. Clipped rainbow trout are open continuously at 3, minimum 16 inches, inside that combined 5. Unclipped rainbow trout are catch-and-release only. Brown trout are open continuously at 5 inside the combined 5, minimum 10 inches, only 1 over 16 inches. Lake trout are 3, with the season December 1, 2025–October 4, 2026, and December 1, 2026–October 3, 2027. Salmon are 5 combined, minimum 10 inches, open continuously. A guide license is required to run a charter on Lake Superior and the St. Louis River estuary. Lake sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon on Lake Superior and the St. Louis River are catch-and-release only from June 16 through April 14, and no tag is required for that catch-and-release season.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
One artificial bait or one single tackle configuration is allowed at the end of a line. A new 2026 rule allows up to 3 single- or multiple-prong hooks in that configuration, and the distance between hooks cannot exceed 18 inches measured along the line. Only one live, artificial, preserved, or dead bait is allowed per line. An umbrella rig may have hooks on only one wire. Up to 3 artificial flies are allowed on one line, with no spacing limit, when fishing for bass, crappie, rock bass, sunfish, or trout. A stinger hook within 3 inches of a single artificial bait is allowed except on designated trout streams and lakes. The booklet does not set a statewide barbless rule. Some special-regulation waters, including waters marked flies-only, require barbless hooks.
Rods per angler
Open water is one line, except two lines may be used on the Minnesota River downstream of Granite Falls Dam and the Mississippi River downstream of St. Anthony Falls. Ice fishing is two lines, except designated trout lakes and streams stay at one line in every season. Border waters and Lake Superior can allow more than one line; those counts are in the border and Lake Superior chapters, not the inland rule. A line with hooks may not be left unattended. An electronic bite alarm does not count as attending the line.
Nets
Minnows and leeches for personal use may be taken with dip nets, seines, and traps. Seines may not be longer than 25 feet or have bar mesh over 1/4 inch, with height caps that depend on the mesh. Traps may not exceed 30 inches long, 30 inches wide, or 15 inches high, the opening may not exceed 1 1/2 inches, and mesh may not exceed 1/2 inch bar measure. Traps need a waterproof name-and-address tag. Cast nets need a DNR permit. Hand-held dip-net hoops for rough fish may not exceed 24 inches. Landing-net rules are not given a separate statewide size in the tackle chapter.
Snagging
Taking fish by hand, called noodling, or by snagging is prohibited.
Spearing and bow
Bowfishing for native rough fish and common carp is allowed over open water or through the ice, day or night, with or without lights, in the open season. Arrows need a barb and a tether to the bow. Shot fish must be retrieved and may not be thrown back or left on a bank or access. Bowfishing is closed in designated trout lakes and streams and in posted spawning areas. A crossbow may be used. Spears, harpoons, and dip nets for rough fish and carp are sunrise to sunset, and spears are banned in designated trout water. Dark-house spearing is a separate winter method for northern pike, catfish, and whitefish, and residents 18 through 89 and nonresidents 18 and older need both a spearing license and an angling license. Anglers 16 and 17 need only the angling license for dark-house spearing.
Bait and live transport
Worms, night crawlers, insects, and larvae may be used. Whole game fish, parts of game fish, goldfish, carp, and salamanders, including mudpuppies, may not be used as bait, with the Lake Superior spawn-bag exceptions in that chapter. Live minnows and leeches may not be imported. Personal harvest is unlimited, but more than 12 dozen may not be transported without a commercial minnow license, and they must travel in tap, well, or bottled water. Before leaving a water with bait, bucket water must be exchanged for tap or bottled water, except while ice fishing, and that ice-fishing exception does not apply on Lake Superior. Releasing bait is illegal. Live minnows may not be possessed or used on designated stream-trout lakes; dried, frozen, or pickled minnows may, and live leeches, worms, and wax worms are legal there. Live bullheads may not be transported north of Highway 210. Lake Superior has extra bait rules: other fish from the lake or from tributaries below the posted boundaries may not be used as bait except trout eggs used as spawn bags, and those bags may be used only on Lake Superior and those tributaries.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Walleye and sauger
On inland waters the open season is May 9, 2026, through February 28, 2027. The possession limit is 6 walleye and sauger combined, with only 1 walleye over 20 inches. Daily and possession limits are the same unless a species note says otherwise. Experimental and special-regulation lakes replace this number. Conservation-license holders may not keep a walleye over 20 inches, and their bag is half the regular limit, rounded down. On Minnesota waters of Lake Superior, walleye are open May 9, 2026, through March 1, 2027, with a possession limit of 2 and a 15-inch minimum.
Bass
In the southern and north-central zones, largemouth bass are catch-and-release March 1–May 22, then 6 largemouth or smallmouth combined when the smallmouth season is open. The inland table opens the combined 6-bass possession on May 23, 2026, through February 28, 2027, with an earlier catch-and-release period and a fall smallmouth catch-and-release period beginning September 14, 2026. In the northeast zone, bass are catch-and-release March 1–May 8 and then 6 combined from May 9, 2026, through February 28, 2027. Pelican and Ash lakes in St. Louis County follow the northeast bass zone.
Sunfish, crappie, perch, and catfish
Inland crappie are open continuously at 10 combined. Sunfish are 20 combined. Yellow perch are 20 daily and 40 in possession. Channel catfish are open continuously at 5, only 1 over 24 inches. Flathead catfish are open April 1–November 30 at 2, only 1 over 24 inches. Many lakes cut the sunfish or crappie bag; Leech Lake, for example, is 5 crappie and 5 sunfish a day in the special-regulations list.
Northern pike and muskellunge
Northern pike inland season is May 9, 2026, through February 28, 2027, and the bag depends on zone. Northeast: 2, only 1 over 40 inches, and all fish from 30 to 40 inches must be released immediately. North-central: 10, not more than 2 over 26 inches, and all from 22 to 26 inches must be released immediately. Southern: 2, with a 24-inch minimum. The most an angler may possess statewide is 10, and the zone limit follows where the fish was caught. Muskellunge are 1 fish, 54-inch minimum, June 6–November 30. Tiger muskellunge are 1 fish, 40-inch minimum, on the same dates. Dark-house spearing uses different pike limits.
Stream trout and lake trout
Inland stream trout, meaning brook, brown, rainbow, splake, and hybrids, but not lake trout, are 5 combined on most streams from April 11 through September 30, only 1 over 16 inches. Fishing hours are one hour before sunrise to 11 p.m. Southeast Minnesota streams are catch-and-release January 1–April 10, 2026, then the 5-fish rule, with a later fall period the booklet continues past September 14. Lake trout in inland lakes are 2 during the summer season May 9–September 30, with separate winter seasons inside and outside the Boundary Waters. These numbers do not apply to Lake Superior or to waters in the experimental and special-regulation lists.