Missouri fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits MDC publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- Anyone who fishes must have the appropriate lifetime, annual, or daily fishing permit, or qualify for an exemption. Permits bought for the current year run from the purchase date through the last day of February 2027 unless the permit says otherwise. The daily fishing permit is $9 and may be bought by residents and nonresidents for more than one day. A trout permit, or a daily trout tag inside trout parks, is still required where the trout rules say so, even for some people who are otherwise exempt from the fishing permit.
- Residents
- The resident fishing permit is $14 and covers fish, frogs, mussels, clams, turtles, crayfish, and live bait. Missouri residents who are exempt include a resident landowner and immediate household fishing on land they own, a resident who owns land that completely encloses a water body when fishing that water, residents 65 or older, and residents with the vision standard printed in the summary. The summary does not state a minimum number of days someone must live in Missouri before buying a resident permit. A resident trout permit is $12 at age 16 or older and $6 at age 15 or younger.
- Nonresidents
- The nonresident fishing permit is $57 and covers the same animals as the resident permit. Anyone 15 or younger, resident or nonresident, is exempt from the fishing permit but still needs a trout tag or trout permit where those are required. A nonresident trout permit is $24 at age 16 or older and $6 at age 15 or younger. The White River border lakes permit is $10 and lets Missouri and Arkansas residents fish the other state’s side of the named impoundments, except for trout.
- Free fishing days
- Free Fishing Days in the 2026 summary are June 6 and 7, 2026. Any person may fish those days without a permit and without the prescribed area daily fishing tag. On private licensed trout-fishing areas, customers and guests may fish for trout without a permit. Other methods, seasons, and limits still apply.
Seasons and closures
Most game fish are open all year
Black bass in impoundments and in non-Ozark streams, catfish, crappie, white and yellow and striped bass, walleye and sauger, muskellunge, northern pike, and trout are open January 1 through December 31, 2026, except where a water-specific season applies. Ozark-stream black bass possession opens May 23, 2026, and runs through February 28, 2027. Bullfrogs and green frogs taken by fishing methods are June 30–October 31, 2026, opening at sunset on the first day, 8 a day and 16 in possession.
Paddlefish and nongame gear seasons
Statewide paddlefish snagging is March 15–April 30. Mississippi River paddlefish adds September 15–December 15 to a spring season that runs through May 15. Nongame snagging, grabbing, and snaring on streams and impoundments follow the spring and fall-winter windows in the 2026 summary. Bowfishing hours change on February 1 and April 1 on impoundments. Gigging switches between sunrise-to-midnight and sunrise-to-sunset on February 16 and September 15.
Area rules win
The statewide line applies except where pages 24–35 of the 2026 summary, or a posted area, set a different limit. Examples already printed there include a 10-fish combined catfish daily limit and a 15-crappie daily limit with a length minimum on some large lakes. Trout management areas add lure and pole limits that are not statewide.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
Game fish may be taken by pole and line, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line, and jug line. Ice-fishing tip-ups count as pole and line. The statewide summary does not set a barbless-hook rule or a maximum number of hooks on a pole. Some areas do: the summary’s special-area notes include a 50-hook cap on a trotline and a limit of two unlabeled poles per licensed angler on the Mississippi River section described there. Many trout waters restrict lures to flies, artificial lures, and unscented soft plastics, and some of those waters allow only one pole.
Rods per angler
There is no statewide pole limit in the general methods sentence. Pole limits show up on posted and special areas, including youth-only lakes limited to one pole, some areas limited to three poles, and trout catch-and-release water limited to one pole. Anchored jug lines may not be left unattended more than 24 hours, and the anchor has to hold the jug in place.
Nets
Live bait may be taken by trap, dip net, throw net, pole and line, or seine. Seines may not be more than 20 feet long and 4 feet deep, with mesh not more than 1/2 inch bar measure. Live-bait traps need a throat opening of no more than 1 1/2 inches in any dimension and must be labeled with the user’s full name and address or Conservation Number. Traps must be removed if they cannot be checked at least once every 24 hours. Crayfish traps may have an opening up to 1 1/2 by 18 inches. The summary does not describe a separate landing-net rule for game fish. Nets are not a legal method for taking game fish.
Snagging
Paddlefish may be taken by snagging and grabbing. Nongame fish may be taken by snagging, grabbing, and snaring in the seasons in the nongame table: March 15–May 15 and September 15–February 15 on streams and impoundments, with shorter seasons on the Osage River below U.S. Highway 54, Lake of the Ozarks, and Harry S. Truman Reservoir, and a different window on the Mississippi River. After a daily limit of 2 paddlefish is kept, snagging, snaring, and grabbing must stop on Lake of the Ozarks and its tributaries, the Osage River below U.S. Highway 54, Table Rock Lake, and Harry S. Truman Reservoir and its tributaries. The MDC seasons page still shows one snagging row dated March 15, 2025–February 15, 2026; the 2026 summary and the 2026 snaring row use the March 15–May 15 and September 15–February 15 pattern.
Spearing and bow
Nongame fish may be taken by bow, with seasons and hours that change by water: impoundments, most streams, portions of the Mississippi, Missouri, and St. Francis rivers, and temporary overflow are listed separately. The daily nongame limit by bow is 20, and that limit is combined with other nongame methods. Crossbows are limited to impoundments and temporary overflow, sunrise to sunset. Gig and atlatl seasons are September 15–February 15 sunrise to midnight on streams and impoundments, and sunrise to sunset the rest of the year on impoundments. Underwater spears are sunrise to sunset, all year, on impoundments and temporary overflow. Alligator gar may not be taken or possessed. Game fish are not a bow or spear fishery under these tables.
Bait and live transport
Live bait includes crayfish, freshwater shrimp, southern leopard frogs, plains leopard frogs, cricket frogs, and nongame fish. Bullfrogs and green frogs taken legally may also be used as bait. Bighead carp and silver carp may not be used alive, and they may be used as dead or cut bait. Game fish and their parts may not be used as bait. Live bait from public waters may not be sold or transported out of Missouri. Live bait other than fish may be taken by hand. Bluegill, green sunfish, and bullheads over 5 inches, and other nongame fish over 12 inches, must be released immediately if taken by trap, net, or seine; those length caps do not apply to pole and line, which instead follows the nongame daily limit. Gizzard shad, goldfish, and bighead, common, grass, and silver carp have no length limit when used as bait.
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
From impoundments, black bass are open all year, 6 a day and 12 in possession, no statewide size limit, in any combination of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass. From non-Ozark streams the same 6 and 12 apply with a 12-inch minimum, all year. From Ozark streams the season is May 23, 2026, through February 28, 2027, still 6 and 12, with a 12-inch minimum. In the rest of the state outside the waters listed in the summary footnote, black bass from streams may not be possessed March 1–May 22, 2026, and only catch-and-release is allowed then. Area rules replace these numbers.
Catfish and crappie
Channel catfish are 10 a day and 20 in possession, no statewide size limit. Blue catfish and flathead catfish are each 5 a day and 10 in possession. Crappie, black and white combined, are 30 a day and 60 in possession, with no statewide size limit. Large-lake exceptions in the summary often cut crappie to 15 a day and add a 9- or 10-inch minimum.
Walleye, temperate bass, and trout
Walleye and sauger are open all year. The 2026 summary lists a daily limit of 6 and a 15-inch minimum. From February 20 through April 14 they may be taken and possessed only from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset in unimpounded streams, except the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and the summary says a change to that hours rule was pending when the booklet was printed. White, yellow, and striped bass and their hybrids are 15 a day and 30 in possession, with no more than 4 longer than 18 inches. Trout are 4 a day. Rainbow trout have no statewide minimum. Brown trout have a 15-inch minimum in streams. Trout parks and trout-management areas replace that rule, and a trout permit or daily tag is required as the area says.
Muskellunge, pike, paddlefish, and sturgeon
The daily limit is 1 muskellunge or 1 northern pike, possession 2. Muskellunge have a 36-inch minimum. Northern pike have no statewide minimum on the summary line. Paddlefish are 2 a day with a 32-inch minimum, measured from the eye to the fork of the tail. The statewide season is March 15–April 30. On the Mississippi River the season is March 15–May 15 and September 15–December 15. Shovelnose sturgeon are 1 a day, with a 30-inch maximum, and must stay intact on the water and the bank. Extracted paddlefish and shovelnose sturgeon eggs may not be possessed on the water or bank, transported, or sold. Alligator gar are protected and may not be taken.
Nongame fish
By pole and line and the other line methods, nongame fish are 50 a day and 100 in possession, except the Mississippi River daily and possession limit of 100. Goldfish and bighead, common, grass, and silver carp do not count and may be possessed in any number. Bow, gig, snagging, and spear nongame limits are 20 a day, and that daily total is shared across nongame methods. Goggle-eye and warmouth, which are regulated with game fish, are 15 a day and 30 in possession with a 7-inch minimum.