South Carolina fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits SCDNR publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- Anyone 16 or older needs the matching recreational license. A freshwater fishing license is required except in a privately owned pond, and it is also required at a commercial pay pond unless that pond is permitted by SCDNR. A saltwater recreational fishing license is required to harvest marine resources, including finfish, oysters, clams, shrimp, and crab, unless the angler is on a licensed public fishing pier, on a licensed charter vessel while under hire, using three or fewer drop nets, fold-up traps, or hookless handlines with a single bait (chicken necking), or shrimping over bait under a shrimp baiting license. Licenses, permits, and tags must be in possession, and an electronic copy is allowed. Identification with name and address must also be carried.
- Residents
- A resident is a person domiciled in South Carolina for 30 days. Proof at a license vendor is an unexpired South Carolina driver's license or SCDMV identification card. A person licensed as a resident of another state is not eligible for a South Carolina resident privilege. Military personnel and dependents stationed in South Carolina for 30 days or longer, or domiciled here, qualify for resident privileges, as do full-time students at a South Carolina school. The 2026–27 booklet lists a resident annual freshwater license at $10, a 14-day freshwater license at $5, a 3-year freshwater license at $30, a resident annual saltwater license at $15, a 14-day saltwater license at $10, and a 3-year saltwater license at $45. Annual recreational licenses run one year from the purchase date.
- Nonresidents
- A nonresident is anyone who does not meet the resident definition. The pricing page lists a nonresident annual freshwater license at $35, a 14-day freshwater license at $11, a 3-year freshwater license at $105, a nonresident annual saltwater license at $75, a 7-day saltwater license at $35, and a 1-day saltwater license at $10. International customers may buy with a passport, and nonresident fees apply.
- Free fishing days
- The 2026–27 regulations book, which replaced the book that stayed valid through August 15, 2026, lists free fishing days as Memorial Day, May 31, 2027, and July 4, 2027, for residents in freshwater only, under S.C. Code Section 50-9-730. That book does not list a 2026 free-fishing date. Size, bag, and gear rules still apply on those days.
Seasons and closures
Freshwater game fish
There is no closed freshwater game-fish season except the waters the booklet names. Striped bass follow the size-and-possession page, including the June 16 through September 30 closure on listed rivers. All watercraft and fishing are prohibited November 1 through February 28 on Cantey Bay, Black Bottom, and Savannah Branch in Lake Marion. Hatchery WMA on Lake Moultrie is closed to fishing each Saturday until noon and all day on the last Saturday of the waterfowl season.
Saltwater inshore seasons
Red drum and spotted seatrout may not be harvested by gig from December 1 through February 28. Saltwater striped bass possession is prohibited June 16 through September 30 except in the lower reach of the Savannah River, where the booklet allows 2 fish per person per day year-round. From October 1 through June 15 the saltwater striped bass bag is 3 fish per person per day except on that Savannah reach. The 2026 shrimp-baiting season in the booklet is September 11 at noon through November 9 at noon.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
The freshwater game-fish section does not set a statewide barbless-hook rule. Game fish may be taken only with hook and line, pole, artificial pole, or rod and reel. In salt water, effective July 1, 2026, an angler fishing for cobia, red drum, spotted seatrout, tarpon, or striped bass with natural bait and a hook 4/0 or larger must use a non-stainless, non-offset circle hook. Hooks smaller than 4/0, and artificial lures, are not under that circle-hook rule. Recreational snapper-grouper fishing with natural bait also requires non-stainless, non-offset circle hooks, and recreational shark fishing requires non-offset, non-stainless circle hooks except with flies or artificial lures.
Rods per angler
For freshwater game fish, no more than four hook-and-line devices may be used at the same time, except from a boat: if everyone in the boat who is 16 or older has a valid fishing license, an unlimited number of lawful devices may be used. The same four-rod limit, with the same boat exception, applies when nongame fish are taken with rods and reels. Recreational saltwater pole or bush lines are limited to ten lines with single hooks or baits. A recreational saltwater trotline setup is limited to two trotlines with 50 hooks or baits combined.
Nets
Cast nets and landing nets for nongame bait fish may be in possession while fishing for freshwater game fish. With a fishing license and no extra tag, cast nets, minnow seines, minnow traps, landing dip nets, and up to five crayfish traps may be used for nongame fish in fresh water except in Game Zone 1 and lakes owned or managed by SCDNR. Game fish caught in a net, trap, or other nongame device must be released immediately. Saltwater game fish (cobia, red drum, spotted seatrout, tarpon, and striped bass) may not be taken by nets. Recreational gill nets need a saltwater license and a gill-net equipment license, and only one lawful recreational gill net may be used, with length and mesh limits in the booklet.
Snagging
The 2026–27 booklet does not use the word snagging in the freshwater game-fish rules. Game fish may be taken only with hook and line, pole, artificial pole, or rod and reel, and game fish taken in a nongame net or trap must be released immediately. Nongame devices such as set hooks, trotlines, and jugs are a separate, tagged fishery and are not allowed in Game Zone 1 or on SCDNR state-managed lakes. The pages checked do not list a general recreational snagging season.
Spearing and bow
With a valid fishing license and no extra tag, archery equipment, gigs, hand grabbing, and spears may be used for nongame fish in fresh water except in Game Zone 1 and lakes owned or managed by SCDNR. Explosives, electrical devices, and poison may not be used. In salt water, flounder, red drum, and spotted seatrout may be taken by rod and reel or gig, but red drum and spotted seatrout may not be harvested by gig from December 1 through February 28, and gigging flounder in daylight is unlawful. It is unlawful to gig sharks. The booklet also prohibits spears and piercing devices other than fishing hooks in the shrimp-baiting rules, and bangsticks may not be used to take fish.
Bait and live transport
No game fish may be used as recreational bait except bream other than redbreast. Trout may be used as bait only on Lakes Hartwell, Russell, Thurmond, Tugaloo, and Yonah, Stevens Creek Reservoir, and the Savannah River, and any game fish used as bait counts in the daily creel. It is unlawful to use a nonindigenous fish as bait that is not already established in that water, except fathead minnows, golden shiners, and goldfish, including black salties. Except for bait lost while fishing and fish released back to the water where they were caught, releasing any aquatic species, including bait, without an SCDNR permit is unlawful. Trotlines, set hooks, and jugs have a short bait list (soap, doughballs, shrimp, grapes, or meat scraps), with live nongame fish and cut bream allowed only on named rivers and only on large single-barbed hooks.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Freshwater daily total and sunfish
No more than 40 game fish may be kept in one day, and that total cannot exceed the species limits. Statewide, bream (bluegill, flier, warmouth, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, redear, and spotted sunfish) are 30 of any length. Redbreast sunfish are 15 of any length. Any game fish with a size limit must be landed with head and tail intact. Total length is the freshwater measure. SCDNR-managed lakes, state parks, city reservoirs, and county parks can set tighter rules.
Crappie, walleye, sauger, and pickerel
Statewide crappie are an 8-inch minimum and 20 a day. Walleye and sauger together are 8 a day, any length. Chain pickerel, redfin pickerel, and yellow perch are each 30 a day, any length. Those counts sit inside the 40-game-fish daily total.
Black bass
Black bass limits are printed by water, not as one number for every species. The statewide smallmouth row, except the waters listed under it, is no more than 5 combined smallmouth, largemouth, redeye bass, or their hybrids, with a 12-inch minimum. Other rows in the same table change both the number and the size for named lakes and rivers, including combined black bass limits of 5 or 10. Use the booklet table for the water being fished.
Striped, hybrid, and white bass, and trout
White bass are 10 a day, any length, statewide except the Savannah River. Striped bass or hybrid striped bass, or a combination, are 10 a day, any length, except the rivers and systems listed in the booklet. On the listed coastal rivers the open period is October 1 through June 15 with a 26-inch minimum and 3 fish, and the season is closed June 16 through September 30. Brook, brown, and rainbow trout and their hybrids are 5 a day, any length, on waters that are not listed as exceptions. Several mountain streams are catch-and-release only from November 1 through May 14 and single-hook artificial lures only during that window.
Blue catfish
The recreational blue catfish daily bag is 150 fish per person on state waterways, except it stays 25 a day on Lake Marion, Lake Moultrie, the Pee Dee River from the North Carolina line south to the Highway 301 bridge, and the upper reach of the Santee River. It is also unlawful to possess more than two blue catfish longer than 32 inches in one day on those waters plus the Congaree and Wateree rivers.
Saltwater
Saltwater fishing is a separate SCDNR license and a separate chapter of the 2026–27 regulations. State waters run from the saltwater-freshwater dividing line out to 3 miles. Federal waters run from 3 to 200 miles, and many offshore species also follow the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council or NOAA. The usual dividing line is U.S. Highway 17, with named exceptions on rivers such as the Savannah, Ashepoo, Edisto, Ashley, and Cooper.
- Red drum in state waters: 1 per person per day, not to exceed 2 per boat, slot 18 to 25 inches total length, rod and reel or gig only. Harvest from federal waters is prohibited. Gigging is closed December 1 through February 28.
- Spotted seatrout: 10 per person per day, 14-inch total-length minimum, rod and reel or gig only, with the same December-through-February gig closure. Southern, summer, and Gulf flounder: 5 per person per day, not to exceed 10 per boat, 16-inch total length, hook and line or gig.
- Sheepshead: 10 per person, not to exceed 30 per boat, 14-inch total length. Black drum: 5 per person, 14- to 27-inch total length. Cobia, red drum, spotted seatrout, striped bass, and tarpon are game fish and native-caught fish may not be sold.
- When natural bait is used with a hook 4/0 or larger for those saltwater game fish, a non-stainless, non-offset circle hook is required as of July 1, 2026.