New Mexico fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits NMDGF publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- Anglers 12 and older must possess a valid New Mexico fishing license or game-hunting and fishing license while fishing. Licenses are valid April 1 through March 31. A license is not required for resident or nonresident anglers 11 or younger, and it is not required on tribal reservations or Class-A lakes. Anglers 18 and older also need a Habitat Management and Access Validation once each license year, at $4. Fishing on U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land requires a Habitat Stamp for anglers 12 and older, at $10. Free licenses do not require the validation or the stamp. A free Gila Trout Fishing Permit is required on the waters named in the booklet.
- Residents
- Resident fees require a U.S. citizen domiciled in New Mexico for not less than 90 days immediately before applying who does not claim residency elsewhere. Temporary or seasonal residents who keep a primary home outside New Mexico do not qualify. The booklet also treats certain foreign citizens who can verify 90 days of New Mexico residence, students who completed a full term while living in the state, and active-duty members permanently assigned to a New Mexico installation, plus a spouse or dependent in the same household, as eligible for resident licenses. Annual resident fishing is $35. Junior annual fishing, ages 12–17, is $5. Senior annual fishing, ages 65–69, is $8. Residents 70 and older can get a free annual fishing license. A one-day license is $12 and a five-day license is $30, the same prices listed for nonresidents.
- Nonresidents
- Anyone who does not meet a resident category pays nonresident fees. Annual nonresident fishing is $90. Junior annual fishing for ages 12–17 is $20. One-day is $12 and five-day is $30. Senior and age-70 free licenses are not available to nonresidents. A Second Rod Validation is $10 for residents and nonresidents. Free fishing weekends waive the license for everyone, and the validation, habitat stamp, and second-rod validation are not required with a free fishing license.
- Free fishing days
- The 2026–2027 booklet lists two free fishing weekends. June 6–7 is New Mexico Free Fishing Day, and September 26–27 is National Hunting and Fishing Day. No license is required. All other fishing rules apply.
Seasons and closures
License year and general season
The fishing license year is April 1 through March 31. The 2026–2027 rules booklet was posted March 19, 2026. Most warmwater species are not given a closed season in the statewide bag table. Winter Trout Waters are stocked with hatchery rainbow trout from November 1 through March 31. Kokanee snagging is a fall season, October 1–December 31 on the listed lakes and river reaches, with Heron Lake and Willow Creek closed through November 10.
Special trout waters
Special Trout Waters use three posted designations. Red Chile Water is catch-and-release with an artificial fly or lure and a single barbless hook. Green Chile Water is two trout a day with tackle restrictions. Xmas Chile Water is two trout a day with any legal tackle. Some native-trout waters instead set unlimited bags on nonnative rainbow, brown, and brook trout. Chumming, baitfish, and disturbing the bottom to attract fish are illegal in every Special Trout Water. Mogollon Creek’s listed stretch is open July 1–October 31, and Valle Vidal streams are open July 1–December 31.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
The booklet does not set a statewide barbless or single-hook rule. Many Special Trout Waters require an artificial fly or lure with a single barbless hook. A single barbless hook is one manufactured without barbs or with every barb pinched. More than one fly or lure, including a dry-and-dropper, may be used on one line in Special Trout Waters. On the San Juan River special trout water it is illegal to fish with more than two flies on a single line. Trotlines, where the drainage allows them, are limited to 25 hooks.
Rods per angler
One rod is the rule for anglers 12 and older unless they buy a Second Rod Validation. That validation allows two rods in all waters. Three rods cannot be used at any time. The validation is $10 and is not required with a free fishing license. Bag and possession limits do not change when a second rod is used. A trotline does not count as a rod and does not need the validation. Anglers may fish a trotline plus one rod, or a trotline plus two rods if they hold the validation.
Nets
It is illegal to take game fish by net, seine, trap, grappling, or other means the regulations do not allow. Minnows for personal use may be taken by angling, dip nets, cast nets, traps, and seines by someone who is licensed or is 11 or younger. A seine may not be longer than 20 feet, and mesh may not be larger than 3/8-inch square. Protected fish taken in a seine, net, or trap must be returned immediately. A landing net is recommended for releasing fish and is not itself a harvest method.
Snagging
Snagging game fish is illegal except kokanee salmon during the Special Kokanee Snagging Season. Snagging means hooking the body rather than the mouth. If another species is snagged, it must be returned immediately. The season is October 1–December 31 at Rio Chama from El Vado Lake to the west boundary of the Rio Chama Wildlife and Fishing Area, Navajo Lake except the buoyed no-wake areas and the shoreline inside those areas at the Pine River and Simms ramps, Pine River, El Vado Lake, and Eagle Nest Lake. Heron Lake and Willow Creek are closed to kokanee possession October 1–November 10 and open to snagging November 11–December 31. During the snagging season the kokanee bag is 12 a day and 24 in possession.
Spearing and bow
Bowfishing and spearfishing are legal for game fish in lakes and reservoirs that are open to angling, with the same bag and size limits as angling. They are not allowed for game fish in any river, stream, Special Trout Water, or Trophy Bass Water for largemouth bass. Unprotected fish such as common carp may be taken by bow or spear in all waters open to angling. Bowfishing arrows must be attached by a line, string, or rope. Crossbows may be used. Legal spear gear includes spears, barbed arrows, and gigs, and spears may be discharged above or below the surface. Snorkelers and scuba divers may spear only in impoundments open to fishing, not in Special Trout Waters, rivers, or streams. Local rules can close a water.
Bait and live transport
It is illegal to possess, transport, or stock live game fish away from the water where they were legally caught, unless a department permit says otherwise. Fish taken home must be dead before they leave the water. Baitfish are illegal except on the drainages and species lists in the booklet, and they are prohibited in Special Trout Waters, Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and Bottomless Lakes State Park. Goldfish and bullfrogs, including tadpoles, may not be used as bait. Bluegills and other Lepomis sunfish taken legally by angling may be used live or dead only in the water where they were taken. Commercially packaged dead fish, and roe, viscera, and eyes of legally taken game fish, may be used where bait is legal. Chumming is allowed except in Special Trout Waters. Importing live fish or eggs requires 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.
Trout and kokanee
Brown, brook, rainbow, and Gila trout, or kokanee, are 5 a day and 10 in possession in any combination, except that no more than 2 lake trout and no more than 2 cutthroat trout may be in that limit. Lake trout are also listed at 2 a day and 4 in possession, and cutthroat at 2 a day and 4 in possession. The trout bag is 3 at Laguna del Campo. Any trout with red slash marks below the jaw counts as a cutthroat. Kokanee may not be possessed at Heron Lake and Willow Creek from October 1 through November 10. Special Trout Waters replace this bag. During the kokanee snagging season the kokanee limit is 12 a day and 24 in possession.
Black bass
The warmwater bag is 5 black bass a day. Largemouth and spotted bass have a 14-inch minimum. Smallmouth bass have a 12-inch minimum, except 14 inches at Conchas and Ute reservoirs. Smallmouth bass in the Rio Grande in Taos and Rio Arriba counties have no minimum. Possession is twice the daily bag. Spearfishing and bowfishing for largemouth bass are not allowed in Trophy Bass Waters.
Catfish, crappie, and walleye
Catfish, except bullheads and the Special Summer Catfish waters, are 15 a day. In the Animas and San Juan rivers in San Juan County there is no bag or possession limit for channel catfish. Special Summer Catfish waters are 2 a day, and trotlines may not be used there. Crappie are 20 a day. Walleye are 5 a day. White bass and hybrid striped bass are 25 a day. Striped bass are 1 a day, with no bag or possession limit in the Animas and San Juan rivers in San Juan County. Yellow perch are 30 a day. Other warmwater game fish, including bluegill, sunfish, bullheads, and freshwater drum, are 20 a day. Possession of each species is twice the daily bag.
Pike, tiger muskie, and possession
Northern pike are 10 a day. At Eagle Nest Lake there is no bag or possession limit, and northern pike may not be returned intentionally to the lake. Tiger muskie are 1 a day with a 40-inch minimum, and the booklet says they are found only in Bluewater Lake and Quemado Lake. The possession limit for each species is twice the daily bag unless a water says otherwise. All fishing in a Special Trout Water must stop once that water’s bag is kept.