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Fishing rules·NC

North Carolina fishing rules

License, gear, and the statewide limits NCWRC publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.

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License

Who needs one
Anyone 16 or older who uses any bait or gear to catch finfish in North Carolina public waters must have a valid North Carolina fishing license. Youth under 16 are exempt from every fishing license and from the trout privilege. A license is not required to fish a true private pond, defined as water that arises on and lies wholly on one owner’s land and that fish cannot enter or leave. The inland license covers inland waters, Public Mountain Trout Waters, trout waters on game lands, and joint waters. It does not cover coastal waters. Coastal and joint waters are also covered by a Coastal Recreational Fishing License from the Division of Marine Fisheries, which NCWRC sells. In joint waters, either the coastal license or a Wildlife Resources Commission inland fishing license is enough.
Residents
A resident has lived in North Carolina for six months, or has been domiciled with a permanent residence for 60 days and intends to stay. Residency can be claimed in only one state. Property ownership or taxes do not create residency if the person claims another state. Nonresident students at a North Carolina college, and nonresident service members stationed in the state and their spouses and children under 18, may buy resident licenses. The 2026–27 digest lists a resident 10-day inland fishing license at $12 and an annual state inland fishing license at $32. A resident coastal recreational fishing license is $20 annually or $9 for 10 days. The unified inland and coastal recreational license for residents is $51. A subsistence waiver of that unified license is free for residents who receive Medicaid, Food Stamps, or Work First Family Assistance.
Nonresidents
A nonresident is anyone who does not live in North Carolina, other than the student and military exceptions. The digest lists a nonresident 10-day inland license at $29 and an annual state inland fishing license at $56. A nonresident coastal recreational fishing license is $40 annually or $15 for 10 days. The unified inland and coastal annual license is listed as resident-only. Lifetime coastal recreational fishing is $652 for a nonresident adult. A freshwater-only inland license does not authorize coastal fishing.
Free fishing days
The 2026–27 inland digest, effective August 1, 2026, says July 4 is declared Free Fishing Day and that a fishing license is not required that day in any public waters, including coastal and trout waters. The digest does not print a calendar year on that sentence. All seasons and limits still apply to people who are otherwise exempt from a license. NCWRC can also issue a license exemption for a specific educational or therapeutic event, limited to the listed place and hours.

Seasons and closures

  • Regulation year

    The inland fishing, hunting, and trapping digest that NCWRC links as current is the 2026–27 edition, effective August 1, 2026. The agency hosts it on eRegulations and also links the NCWRC regulations page. Hatchery-supported trout closures and the delayed-harvest youth morning are printed with 2027 dates in that book. Delayed-harvest waters open to anglers under 16 from 6 a.m. until noon on the first Saturday in June, then to everyone at noon, under hatchery-supported rules through September 30.

  • Joint and coastal seasons

    Joint waters are managed by both the Wildlife Resources Commission and the Division of Marine Fisheries. Hook-and-line inland game fish follow inland rules. Commercial fishing, including commercial trotlines, follows coastal rules. Striped bass seasons in the Roanoke, Albemarle, and Central-Southern areas are set by proclamation and can be closed. The Marine Fisheries size-and-bag page dated effective September 2, 2026, says the Albemarle Sound striped bass season is currently closed and that possession is unlawful in the Central-Southern Management Area.

Legal gear

  • Hooks and barbless rules

    Inland game fish may be taken only with a hook and line. There is no statewide barbless rule. From April 1 through June 30 on the inland Roanoke River upstream of the U.S. 258 bridge, only a single barbless circle hook may be used with live or natural bait, and only a single barbless hook with other tackle. Barbless means the hook has no barb or the barb is bent down. Tandem rigs are prohibited there. Public Mountain Trout Waters that are wild, catch-and-release, or in the delayed-harvest artificial-lure season allow only a single hook, defined as a hook with one point. Dropper flies may be used.

  • Rods per angler

    The 2026–27 inland digest does not print a statewide maximum number of rods for hook-and-line game fish. Fishing in Public Mountain Trout Waters is limited to hook and line. Trotlines, set-hooks, and jug-hooks are separate devices with their own rules in the special-device chapter. A Special Device Inland Fishing license is required to take nongame fish for sale with the listed commercial-style gears. Some of those gears may be used for personal bait or food under an ordinary inland fishing license where the digest allows it.

  • Nets

    A landing net may be used to land fish caught on a hook and line. Seines, gill nets, and trawl nets are unlawful in the Lake Mattamuskeet canals, and no net, net stake, or electrical fishing device may be used within 800 feet downstream of Lock No. 1 on the Cape Fear River. It is unlawful to net striped bass or Bodie bass in joint waters except as Marine Fisheries Commission rules allow. White perch may be kept when they come up in a cast net used for nongame fish in impoundments west of I-95 and in Tar River Reservoir, except in and west of Haywood, Buncombe, and Rutherford counties, where live white perch may not be possessed, transported, or released. American and hickory shad may be taken with bow nets from March 1 through April 30 only in counties and waters with an open bow-net season.

  • Snagging

    It is unlawful to snag fish by pulling or jerking a device with one or more hooks through the water to impale them. An angler may not take more than one daily creel of an inland game fish that has a creel limit, may not possess more than one daily creel while fishing, boating, or afield, and may not possess more than three days’ creel at any place. Fish regulated by size must stay measurable; the head or tail may not be removed while fishing.

  • Spearing and bow

    Inland game fish are a hook-and-line fishery. Taking nongame fishes with archery equipment is allowed under any license that provides hunting or inland fishing privileges. Gigs and spear guns are among the special devices that require the Special Device Inland Fishing license when used to take nongame fish for sale, and the digest says certain special devices may be used for personal bait or consumption under a regular inland license where authorized. The Division of Marine Fisheries says it is unlawful to gig, spear, or gaff striped bass and red drum in coastal waters.

  • Bait and live transport

    Inland game fish may be used as bait only if they were legally taken and meet the size and creel limits of the water being fished. It is unlawful to take fish bait or bait fish from Public Mountain Trout Waters, and natural bait may not be possessed while fishing wild trout waters, catch-and-release trout waters, or delayed-harvest waters during the artificial-lure season. Natural bait is any living or dead organism, or part of one, or a prepared substance that attracts fish by taste or smell. An artificial lure is one that neither contains nor has been treated with a substance that attracts fish that way. Live white perch may not be possessed, transported, or released in and west of Buncombe, Haywood, and Rutherford counties. It is unlawful to put hatchery-reared fish into Wild Trout Waters or to move wild fish between streams on game lands without written authorization. The digest tells anglers not to move blue or flathead catfish from one water to another.

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

    In all public waters except the listed exceptions, largemouth bass have a 14-inch minimum except that 2 fish may be shorter, and the daily creel is 5, including only 2 under 14 inches. Smallmouth bass use that same statewide rule. Alabama bass and spotted bass have no statewide minimum and no statewide creel, except at waters such as Lake Chatuge, where largemouth, smallmouth, Alabama, and spotted bass share a 10-fish combination. Many reservoirs replace the statewide bass rule. Bartram’s bass are 14 inches except that 2 may be shorter, and the creel is 5 including only those 2 short fish.

  • Trout

    Hatchery Supported trout waters have no minimum and a daily creel of 7, with no bait restriction. For 2026–27 they are open August 1, 2026, through February 28, 2027, closed March 1 through April 2, 2027, and open again from 7 a.m. on April 3, 2027, through July 31, 2027, except listed waters with no closed season. Wild Trout Waters are open all year, 7-inch minimum, 4 a day, artificial lures with a single hook, and natural bait may not be possessed. Delayed Harvest waters from October 1, 2026, through June 4, 2027, allow no trout in possession and only single-hook artificial lures. Catch-and-release artificial-fly waters allow no harvest. Undesignated waters that hold trout are 7 a day with no size limit and no closed season.

  • Crappie, sunfish, and walleye

    Black and white crappie in public waters not on the exception list have an 8-inch minimum and a daily creel of 20 combined. Several coastal-plain rivers and waters east of I-95, and waters west of I-77 except Lake Chatuge, are 20 combined with no minimum. Lake Mattamuskeet and the Roanoke River below Roanoke Rapids Dam are 10 inches and 20 combined. Sunfish other than crappie, rock bass, and Roanoke bass have no size limit and no creel in most public waters; the listed coastal rivers and waters east of I-95 are 30 combined, including no more than 12 redbreast sunfish. Walleye are 15 inches in public waters that are not excepted. The exception table’s creel column is broken up by water, so a single statewide walleye creel is not stated on that row. Muskellunge are 42 inches. Sauger are 15 inches.

  • Striped bass and coastal species in inland water

    Striped bass and Bodie bass limits change by management area, and several coastal areas are closed or set by Marine Fisheries proclamation. In unlisted inland impoundments the digest table shows a 20-inch minimum and 4 fish in combination. It is unlawful to possess them in the joint waters of the Cape Fear River, and from May 1 through September 30 in joint waters unless a proclamation changes that. An angler may possess only one daily creel of the two combined, no matter how many areas were fished. Flounder, red drum, and spotted seatrout taken in inland waters use the recreational limits of the adjacent joint and coastal waters. Red drum, flounder, spotted seatrout, striped bass, and weakfish taken from inland or joint waters next to coastal waters must be reported at deq.nc.gov/report-my-fish.

Saltwater

Coastal recreational fishing is regulated by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries at the Department of Environmental Quality, not by the inland digest alone. Anyone 16 or older who recreationally takes finfish in coastal fishing waters needs a Coastal Recreational Fishing License. In joint waters, that license or a Wildlife Resources Commission inland fishing license will do. The license is for personal consumption and the fish may not be sold. NCWRC lifetime sportsman or lifetime comprehensive fishing licenses bought before January 1, 2006, are exempt from the coastal license. The September 2, 2026, size-and-bag page says it is informational and that rules can change by proclamation.

  • Red drum: 18-inch minimum and 27-inch maximum total length, 1 a day. It is unlawful to possess a red drum over 27 inches or to gig, spear, or gaff one. Spotted seatrout: 14–20 inches total length, one fish over 26 inches allowed in the bag, and 3 a day. The Division of Marine Fisheries August 2026 fishery-plan update states that slot as one fish over 26 inches. Cold-stun proclamations can close the fishery. Weakfish: 12 inches, 1 a day. Sheepshead: 14 inches total length, 5 a day. Black drum: 14-inch minimum and 25-inch maximum, 10 a day, and one fish over 25 inches is allowed.
  • Bluefish: 5 a day in private recreational fishing and 7 a day for an angler on a for-hire vessel, no minimum. Black sea bass north of Cape Hatteras: 13 inches total length, measured without the tail filament, 15 a day, open May 1 through December 31. South of Cape Hatteras: 13 inches and 7 a day. Spanish mackerel: 12 inches fork length, 15 a day. King mackerel: 24 inches fork length, 3 a day.
  • Flounder, all species: the September 2, 2026, table says the fishery is open September 1–14 and closed September 15–30, and that possession is unlawful during the closure. The bag and size are not printed in that row; they are in the linked 2026 flounder proclamation. Striped bass in the Atlantic Ocean are 1 a day inside a 28-to-31-inch slot. It is unlawful to gig, spear, or gaff them. Alewife and blueback herring, tarpon, Atlantic sturgeon, and shortnose sturgeon may not be possessed.
  • Effective December 1, 2025, recreational harvest of red drum, flounder, spotted seatrout, striped bass, and weakfish must be reported at deq.nc.gov/report-my-fish. Fish subject to limits must keep the head and tail attached, with narrow bait exceptions for mullet and hickory shad.

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