Private Waters

PRIVATE WATERS

A fishing license is required on all public waters. In addition, a license is required for fishing on many private lands, including the following:

• any private impoundment that has a stream or river going into and/or out of it, whether the stream is intermittent or not;

• a private impoundment that is owned or operated by more than one person or group, in which case the owner or opera tor or member of the group would be exempt from the license requirement only while fishing on the portion of the impoundment they own;

• guests of landowners or operators fishing on streams and rivers on land solely owned or operated; and

• any impoundment stocked by the state within the last 10 years. The sole owner of an impoundment or the land through which a stream flows does not have to have a fishing license. Guests may fish private land without a fishing license if it is a private waters fishing impoundment.(See “definitions” page 12.)