Oregon fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits ODFW publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- Anyone 12 or older must have a valid Oregon angling license in possession to angle for, take, or help someone else angle for or take any fish for personal use. A shellfish license is required to take shellfish for personal use. Every angler, regardless of age, needs a valid Combined Angling Tag to angle for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, or halibut, except on free fishing days. Electronic or paper documents must be shown immediately on request.
- Residents
- A resident has physically lived in Oregon for at least six consecutive months immediately before applying. Members of the U.S. uniformed services permanently assigned to active duty in Oregon, and their spouses and dependent children, and aliens attending school in Oregon under a foreign-student exchange program, are also treated as residents under the booklet definition. Owning property or paying taxes in Oregon does not by itself make someone a resident.
- Nonresidents
- Anyone who is not an Oregon resident needs a nonresident angling license. Washington residents fishing from a boat on the concurrent Columbia River boundary may use a valid Washington license; other anglers need an Oregon angling or shellfish license when they land fish or take shellfish by boat in Oregon. An angler licensed in both states is still limited to one daily bag and one annual bag of each species from the Columbia River.
- Free fishing days
- In 2026 the free fishing days are February 14–15, June 6–7, and November 27–28. On those weekends no angling or shellfish license, Combined Angling Tag, Columbia Basin endorsement, Ocean Endorsement, Rogue-South Coast Steelhead Validation, or Two-Rod Validation is required. Area closures, bag limits, and every other regulation still apply.
Seasons and closures
How to read a zone
Statewide license, gear, and harvest-method rules apply everywhere. If a water or a section of a water is not listed under Exceptions, the zone regulation applies. Emergency and temporary rules adopted after the booklet is printed replace the printed rule. Salmon and steelhead change often in season.
Daylight hours
Angling for salmon, shad, steelhead, sturgeon, trout, or whitefish is limited to daylight, one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset, unless a waterbody exception says otherwise.
Columbia River Basin endorsement
Every angler, regardless of age, needs a Columbia River Basin Endorsement in possession to angle for salmon, steelhead, or sturgeon in the mainstem Columbia from Buoy 10 upstream and in rivers and tributaries that flow into the Columbia. It is in addition to an angling license and a Combined Angling Tag. Resident disabled veteran, resident pioneer, and youth licenses, and anglers under 12, can be issued that endorsement at no charge on request. It is not required on free fishing days.
Rogue-South Coast steelhead
From December 1 through April 30, every angler, regardless of age, needs a Rogue-South Coast Steelhead Validation to angle for steelhead in that area, plus a valid annual angling license and Combined Angling Tag, or a daily or multi-day license with a valid ODFW ID number. The validation is not required on free fishing days.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
No more than three hooks may be used while angling, except herring jigs for marine food fish. A double or treble hook counts as one hook. When two rods are allowed, the three-hook rule applies to each rod. Barbless hooks, single-point hooks, or both are required for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, or trout on many waters. Sturgeon angling is limited to one single-point barbless hook. Ocean salmon angling, and angling for other ocean species with salmon or steelhead on board, is limited to two single-point barbless hooks. For inland salmon and steelhead, single-point hooks larger than a 1-inch gap and multiple-point hooks larger than a 9/16-inch gap are prohibited, and weight that is not part of a conventional lure must be placed on the line between the lure and the rod, with extra spacing when the hook gap is larger than 5/8 inch or the hook has more than one point.
Rods per angler
One rod or line is the rule. A Two-Rod Validation allows two rods in lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, including Snake River impoundments above Hells Canyon Dam, and five rods only while ice fishing. It may be used in a stream only where the regulations authorize it. Youth under 12 may use two rods where two rods are legal without buying the validation. The validation is prohibited on the Columbia River and its impoundments, in seasonal or permanent backwaters and sloughs of rivers, streams, and creeks, in bays, estuaries, and ocean waters, and in coastal lakes during wild coho seasons. Offshore, more than three miles from shore, any number of rods is allowed only while no species other than offshore pelagic species have been retained.
Nets
A hand-held landing net may be used to land a legally hooked fish. It is unlawful to net, trap, or ensnare any freshwater game fish. A gaff may not be used to land salmon, steelhead, or other freshwater game fish in inland or ocean fisheries, and a sturgeon may not be gaffed. Crayfish may be taken by hand, baited lines with no hooks, nets, rings, and traps. No angling or shellfish license is required for crayfish.
Snagging
Snagging or attempting to snag game fish is prohibited. Game fish other than those hooked inside the mouth may not be taken. Anti-snagging gear restrictions apply on waters listed in the zone regulations. After a daily or possession limit of a type of fish is retained, angling for that type must stop, with listed exceptions that include bass tournaments, assisting an angler who holds an Oregon Disabilities Hunting and Fishing Permit, and sturgeon angling when later fish are released.
Spearing and bow
Freshwater game fish may be taken by angling. Spearfishing is allowed for bass and walleye in waters where those species have no size limit and no bag limit. It is otherwise unlawful to spear freshwater game fish. Bullfrogs may be taken by angling, hand, bow and arrow, spear, gig, spear gun, or dip net, with no license and no bag limit. Carp and other listed nongame fish have separate harvest methods, including bow and spear where the booklet allows them.
Bait and live transport
It is unlawful to use live lamprey, live crayfish, or live leeches as bait, or to possess them while angling, and aquaria species may not be used live or dead. It is unlawful to transport live fish into, within, or out of Oregon, to hold any live fish in state waters, or to release live fish, except aquaria fish intended for aquaria use and people who hold a valid Fish Transport Permit. Eggs may not be removed from a salmon, steelhead, or sturgeon in the field unless the carcass is retained. In the field, game fish must stay intact enough that size, species, and any fin clip can be checked until the angler has reached the automobile and finished angling for the day.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Salmon and steelhead
There is no single statewide daily bag. Daily limits, fin-clip rules, and open dates are set by zone, water, and in-season update. The annual limit recorded on the Combined Angling Tag is 20 salmon and steelhead in any combination. An angler may buy only one of those tags per year. Hatchery salmon or hatchery steelhead legally recorded on a Hatchery Harvest Tag do not count toward that annual limit. Wild steelhead in the Rogue-South Coast area are a separate exception in the booklet. Jack salmon angling must stop once the adult salmon daily bag is kept.
Trout and kokanee
Trout bag, size, bait, and season rules are set by angling zone, and a water listed under Exceptions replaces the zone rule. Beginning in 2026, kokanee in the Central, Willamette, Northeast, and Southeast zones are a separate limit of 10 a day, no size limit, open all year, unless an exception says otherwise. Other zones keep their own kokanee listings.
Bass, walleye, and other warmwater fish
Bass and walleye limits differ by zone. In zones where the booklet sets no bag and no size limit, spearfishing for those species is also allowed. Where a zone sets a lake limit, streams in that zone can still be different. Read the zone table, then the waterbody exceptions.
Sturgeon and halibut
The annual bag is two white sturgeon and six Pacific halibut. Sturgeon gear is one single-point barbless hook. A sturgeon longer than 54 inches fork length may not be removed from the water, in whole or in part. Lures may not be used for sturgeon in waters closed to salmon and steelhead angling. A sturgeon may not be tethered for later take.
Possession
The possession limit is three daily bag limits for all species, including jack salmon, except where the booklet sets a different possession limit. From the Columbia River, the limit is one daily bag and one annual bag for every species, even if the angler holds both an Oregon and a Washington license. Bag and possession limits apply across zone boundaries and to fish in any condition while the angler is in the field.
Saltwater
Starting January 1, 2026, recreational anglers fishing in the ocean from beaches, jetties, or boats, or spearfishing, need an Ocean Endorsement to take marine finfish other than salmon and steelhead. Shellfish do not require it. The published cost is the same for residents and nonresidents: $9 for the year or $4 for one day. It is included at no charge with resident Pioneer, resident Disabled Veteran, and Youth licenses, and it is not required on free fishing days or for anglers under 12.
- An Ocean Endorsement is not required when the only finfish retained are salmon or steelhead. If a rockfish, lingcod, halibut, tuna, or other marine finfish is retained, the endorsement is required.
- Washington residents, and nonresidents who hold a valid Washington fishing license, fishing from a boat north of Cape Falcon do not need an Oregon license or Oregon Ocean Endorsement. A Washington-licensed angler who is not a Washington resident must land those fish in Washington.
- ODFW’s 2026 changes, set after the printed book in December 2025, raise the lingcod daily limit from 2 to 3 and keep the general marine bag (rockfish, greenlings, cabezon, and the other species in that bag) at 4 fish all year, with a sub-limit of 2 canary rockfish. In-season marine changes are posted with the regulation updates.
- Pacific halibut angling is limited to two hooks. The annual halibut limit is six.