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Fishing rules·VA

Virginia fishing rules

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

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License

Who needs one
Inland fishing requires a freshwater fishing license unless the person is exempt. The license, electronic, paper, or annual card, must be carried and shown on request. Residents and nonresidents under 16 do not need a freshwater license or a trout license. Landowners, their spouses, children, grandchildren, and those spouses, and the landowner's parents, do not need a license to fish within the boundaries of their own land and inland waters. Guests in an individually owned private pond are exempt. Legally blind persons are exempt. Saltwater fishing is a separate license sold alongside the freshwater license, and marine rules are set by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
Residents
A state resident license is for someone who has been a domiciliary resident of Virginia for two or more months immediately before purchase and who signs a certificate of residency. Members of the U.S. armed forces stationed in Virginia, and their spouses and dependents, may buy a resident license. The fee table lists a one-year resident freshwater license at $28, a county or city resident license at $21, a resident 65 or older freshwater license at $9, a resident trout license for designated stocked trout waters at $28, and a combined freshwater and saltwater license at $44.50. A Board release says most resident fishing licenses increase by $5 on October 1, 2026, and that youth, apprentice, disabled-veteran, and disabled-participant licenses do not increase. The fee table checked still shows the amounts above, so the price at purchase should be confirmed.
Nonresidents
Anyone who does not meet a resident category needs a nonresident license. The fee table lists a nonresident freshwater license at $72, a nonresident trout license at $48, a combined freshwater and saltwater license at $96, a one-day freshwater license at $20, and a five-day freshwater license at $36. Nonresident children under 16 do not need a freshwater or trout license. The October 1, 2026 fee notice describes the $5 increase as applying to most resident licenses, not as a new nonresident schedule.
Free fishing days
DWR free fishing days in 2026 are June 5–7 and September 25–27. No fishing license is required for recreational rod-and-reel fishing in fresh water or salt water, and DWR access permits are not required. Designated stocked trout waters are open without a trout license on those days. Size, season, creel, and gear rules stay in effect. DWR fee-fishing areas still charge a fee. The fall dates are described by DWR as the first fall free-fishing weekend.

Seasons and closures

  • Freshwater season

    There is a continuous year-round season for freshwater fish, except special times and limited closures for trout on designated stocked trout waters, youth-only stocked waters, Trout Heritage waters, urban program waters, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and fee-fishing trout waters, and except the seasons for special nongame methods. Fishing on Department-owned sites is allowed 24 hours a day unless posted. A trout license is required on designated stocked trout waters from the dates in the stocking plan, generally October 1 through June 15, and November 1 through April 30 on urban waters.

  • Saltwater seasons set by VMRC

    Black sea bass are open May 11 through December 31. Cobia are open June 15 through September 20. Speckled trout are closed April 1 through June 30, 2026. Coastal striped bass are open January 1 through March 31 and May 16 through December 31. Chesapeake Bay striped bass are open May 16 through June 15 and October 4 through December 31. Summer flounder are open year-round in Virginia tidal waters under the 2026 state measures. Federal waters beyond 3 miles are closed to striped bass all year.

Legal gear

  • Hooks and barbless rules

    The general freshwater page does not set a statewide barbless-hook rule or a statewide hook count. Inland game fish are taken by angling with a hook and line or rod and reel, with separate rules for nongame fish. In marine waters, anyone fishing recreationally for striped bass with live or chunk bait must use a non-offset, corrodible, non-stainless circle hook. Recreational Atlantic tarpon fishing with bait also requires a non-offset, corrodible, non-stainless circle hook. Some trout waters use single-hook artificial-lure rules; those are water-specific in the trout section.

  • Rods per angler

    The general freshwater page does not set a statewide maximum number of rods. On Department-owned lakes, ponds, and streams, fish must be taken with one or more attended poles with hook and line, unless a posted rule says otherwise. Trotlines, juglines, and set poles must be removed from public waters when not in use, and they must be marked with the owner's name, address, and telephone number and checked daily. Within 500 yards below Walkers Dam, only rod and reel and hand lines are allowed.

  • Nets

    A hand landing net may be used to land fish that were legally hooked. For personal-use nongame fish and aquatic invertebrates, where nets are not prohibited, the allowed gear includes a seine no deeper than 4 feet and no longer than 10 feet, an umbrella net no larger than 5 by 5 feet, small minnow traps with throat openings no larger than 1 inch, cast nets, and a handheld bow net no wider than 20 inches. It is illegal to use SCUBA gear to take or attempt to take fish. A saltwater recreational license also covers noncommercial use of a cast net and up to two eel pots. A cast net for small quantities of mullet, menhaden, or minnows for personal use does not by itself require a saltwater license.

  • Snagging

    Snagging, grabbing, snaring, gigging, and a striking iron are legal for nongame fish only in the counties and seasons listed on the nongame page, not as a statewide method. It is illegal to snag fish at Walkers Dam. In Virginia marine waters it is illegal to snag, or attempt to snag, any fish other than Atlantic menhaden and mullet. Game fish on inland waters are taken by hook and line or rod and reel.

  • Spearing and bow

    Bow and arrow, including crossbows, may be used for common carp, grass carp, northern snakehead, and gar, day or night, except in waters stocked with trout. A fishing license is required. Bowfin and catfish may be taken that way in tidal waters below the fall line. Spearguns and poisoned arrows are prohibited. Snakeheads taken this way must be killed immediately and reported. Carp, grass carp, snakehead, goldfish, catfish, longnose gar, and bowfin taken with bow and arrow must be kept and may not be released or disposed of in the water or on property abutting that water. Below the fall line of the Rappahannock and Potomac and their tributaries, nongame fish may be taken by gig or a hand-thrown fishing spear from above the surface.

  • Bait and live transport

    Stocking any fish into inland waters without written Department approval is unlawful, and blue catfish and their hybrids, spotted bass, Alabama bass, and northern snakehead cannot be stocked even in private ponds. Fish bait, minnows and chubs and hellgrammites, is limited to 50 in aggregate unless the angler has a receipt for purchased bait. Crayfish possession is 20 in aggregate. Madtoms, crayfish, and salamanders cannot be bought or sold. Trotlines, juglines, and set poles may not be baited with live bait, though worms are allowed, except that live bait other than game fish may be used on trotlines for catfish in the counties named on the nongame page. Artificially raised rainbow trout may be sold as bait only for the James and New rivers and for impoundments that are not designated stocked trout waters, Lake Moomaw, or Philpott Reservoir, and a bill of sale is required. Unused live bait should be destroyed or kept, not dumped.

Bag and size limits

These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.

  • Largemouth and smallmouth bass

    The 2026 creel table sets largemouth and smallmouth bass at 5 per day combined, with no statewide length limit. Alabama and spotted bass have no statewide daily limit and no statewide length limit. Many lakes and rivers replace the bass rule with a slot or a minimum length. Creel limits are per person per day, and it is unlawful to have more than the daily creel in possession while afield or on the water, including fish kept alive.

  • Trout, walleye, and striped bass

    The general statewide trout limit is 6 a day with a 7-inch minimum. Designated stocked trout waters, heritage, urban, and fee areas have their own hours and limits, and South Holston Reservoir is 7 trout a day with only 2 lake trout and no minimum. Walleye and saugeye are 5 a day combined, and none may be under 18 inches. Sauger are 2 a day with no statewide length limit. Landlocked striped bass and their hybrids with white bass are 4 a day combined, none under 20 inches, except the lakes listed in the table. Anadromous striped bass above the fall line follow VMRC tidal rules.

  • Sunfish, crappie, and catfish

    Bluegill and other sunfish, excluding crappie, rock bass, and Roanoke bass, are 50 a day combined, with no statewide length limit. Crappie are 25 a day combined, with no statewide length limit. Rock bass and Roanoke bass are 25 a day in aggregate with each other. Channel, white, and flathead catfish are 20 a day with no length limit, and blue catfish are 20 a day with no statewide length limit. Rivers below the fall line have no daily limit for channel, white, and flathead catfish, and several of those waters limit blue catfish over 32 inches to one a day.

  • Nongame fish

    Other native or naturalized nongame fish are 20 a day with no length limit, with the exceptions on the nongame page. Threatened and endangered species may not be possessed. Carp, mullet, white sucker, northern hogsucker, gizzard shad, threadfin shad, white perch, and several bait minnows have no possession limit. Yellow perch have no statewide daily limit, except 10 a day in Lake Moomaw, and tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay below the fall line have a 9-inch minimum.

Saltwater

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission, at mrc.virginia.gov, sets recreational size, season, and creel limits for saltwater and for anadromous fish in tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. DWR sets freshwater rules. A saltwater recreational license is required in the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries, and Virginia ocean waters unless the angler is on a licensed pier, a licensed charter boat, or a licensed private boat, or is otherwise exempt. People 65 or older do not need a saltwater license but must register in the free Virginia Fisherman Identification Program. Unlicensed saltwater anglers 16 and older, and adults fishing for anadromous or marine species in freshwater, must also register. The saltwater license covers rod and reel, hand line, spear or gig, cast net, dip net, or up to two eel pots.

  • Summer flounder, when landing in Virginia, including federal waters under the April 30, 2026 conservation-equivalency notice: open all year, 4 per person, 16-inch minimum from January 1 through May 31 and 17.5-inch minimum from June 1 through December 31.
  • Black sea bass: 13-inch minimum, 15 per person, May 11 through December 31. Cobia: 43 inches total length, 1 per person or 2 per vessel, whichever is more restrictive, June 15 through September 20, and gaffing is prohibited.
  • Red drum: slot 18 to 26 inches, 3 per person. Speckled trout: 14-inch minimum, 5 per person and only 1 longer than 24 inches, closed April 1 through June 30, 2026. Bluefish: no minimum on the VMRC sheet, 5 per person from shore or a private or rented vessel and 5 per person on for-hire vessels.
  • Coastal striped bass: slot 28 to 31 inches, 1 per person, with the coastal seasons above, and circle hooks required when fishing with bait. Chesapeake Bay spring and fall seasons: slot 19 to 24 inches, 1 per person. Possession limits may not be combined across overlapping seasons or jurisdictions. Gaffing striped bass is illegal. Atlantic tarpon may not be possessed, gaffed, or speared by recreational anglers.

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