Don’t have a fishing license? No problem
Texas leads the nation in the number of people buying fishing licenses, with the 1.67 million licenses that Texans purchased a year ago topping the totals in such piscatorially popular states as California, Florida and Minnesota.
This is a good thing for Texas anglers, the fish they pursue and the state’s environmental and economic health. The $55 million or so annually generated by fishing license fees is what keeps Texas fisheries and fishing afloat. Those dollars and money from a federal excise tax on fishing tackle (distributed, in large part, based on the number of fishing licenses sold in the state) wholly fund Texas’ fisheries management efforts — research and monitoring of fisheries, hatcheries, habitat creation/enhancement, boat ramps and other public-access projects and other fisheries-related projects and programs. Without fishing-license fees, Texas fisheries — and fishing —would be dead in the water.
But buying a fishing license isn’t a universal requirement to fish in Texas. Anglers — or prospective anglers — not willing or able to cough up the money for a license can find abundant opportunities to legally fish in this state. And many of the best of those opportunities have been created by the state agency that depends on people buying fishing licenses. Check for exemptions
Don’t have a fishing license or aren’t sure you want to invest in one but still want to fish in Texas? You may not be required to buy one. A fair number of Texans — and some nonresidents — are exempt from fishing-license requirements because of their age or where they fish.
Texas requires fishing licenses of persons 17 and older fishing in public waters of the state. Those under 17, resident or nonresident, are exempt from fishing-license requirements. Texas also exempts residents born before Jan. 1, 1931 from the requirement to hold a valid fishing license to fish in public waters.
The “public waters” part of the licensing law gets a considerable number of anglers a pass on license requirements. In Texas, anglers who fish privately owned water bodies are not required to hold a state fishing license. That covers a lot of water — the thousands of stock tanks, farm ponds, subdivision lakes or other impoundments wholly owned by private landowners. No license is required to fish those waters. Neither do state fishing rules governing things such as fish bag limits, minimum length or even methods used to catch fish apply. Fish in private water are considered the private property of the landowner. Private vs. public
Anglers who want to take advantage of the no-license-required option of fishing private waters should be sure the water they fish is privately owned. The “private waters” license exemption does not apply to those fishing in rivers or creeks or other natural waterways running through private property. Natural waterways in Texas are considered public water. A fishing license is required to fish in them, and all fishing regulations apply, even if the angler is standing on private property.
But not all Texas public water is off limits to license-less anglers. Far from it. A license is not required to fish some very good public waters across the state, both inland and along the coast.
A little more than a decade ago, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department initiated a project it called Family Fishing Celebration — a pilot program designed to encourage families to visit and fish in state parks. It offered a significant incentive: Anyone fishing inside the boundaries of a state park was exempt from fishinglicense requirements.
The program now is known as “Free Fishing in State Parks,” and it is a huge hit with Texans, even if the name is slightly misleading. The program continues the policy of exempting all anglers fishing within the boundary of a state park from fishinglicense requirements. It is not exactly “free” — park or WMA entry fees and fees to use campsites or other facilities still apply. But fish in one of the scores of lakes, ponds or other waterways within the boundaries of state parks or from the bank or pier of a state park, and no fishing license is required.
Under the program, if the water body is wholly within the boundary of a TPWD-owned property and boats are allowed on the water, boating anglers aren’t required to possess a valid Texas fishing license. The policy applies to state parks across the state, including those on the coast. (Other fishing regulations, including bag limits, fish length requirements and means/methods still apply.)
This puts a world of great fishing within reach of unlicensed anglers. More than 100 TPWD properties — 70 or so state parks and almost three dozen wildlife management areas — are part of the program. They include some wonderful freshwater fisheries such as Purtis Creek State Park, which holds a 355-acre lake built and managed to provide a world-class fishery for largemouth bass and sunfish. Closer to Houston, Sheldon Lake, Brazos Bend, Galveston Island, San Jacinto Battleground, Sea Rim and Stephen F. Austin state parks can offer excellent fishing. Huntsville State Park’s Lake Raven is a tremendous 210-acre fishery, with the lake holding healthy populations of largemouth bass and sunfish.
Dozens of state parks sit on the shores of some of the state’s premier inland reservoir fisheries, and anglers can fish those waters from the shore or piers within those parks without having to hold a fishing license. Those include parks on such high-profile fisheries as lakes Ray Roberts, Choke Canyon, Falcon, Livingston, Caddo and Cooper as well as dozens of smaller lakes across the state. (The license exemption does not apply beyond the park’s boundaries, so boaters on these large public reservoirs aren’t exempt from license requirements.)
As an added encouragement to draw new or novice anglers, and especially families, many state parks will loan fishing tackle to park visitors, and several offer basic fishing classes. A list of parks participating in the “tackle loan” program, a schedule of learn-to-fish classes as well as a list of state parks and state wildlife management areas in the Free Fishing in State Parks program can be found on the fishing section of the agency’s website — tpwd. texas.gov/fishboat/fish.
While the Free Fishing in State Parks program offers unlicensed anglers a year-round chance to fish public waters, those anglers get a much broader opportunity in three weeks. On June 3, anglers can fish any public water in the state without having a valid fishing license. The statewide free fishing day is an annual event set for the first Saturday in June as part of the nationwide National Fishing and Boating Week. As with the Free Fishing in State Parks, all other fishing regulations other than license requirements apply. Hooking new anglers
Giving Texans the opportunity to fish public waters without first having to purchase a license isn’t an altruistic move. There is a practical motive behind it. Texas fisheries officials know there is a considerable segment of the population interested in recreational fishing but not sure they will enjoy it enough to invest in an annual fishing license and the tackle and other gear associated with the recreation. Offering potential anglers the opportunity to try fishing at little or no cost is a way for them to dip their toe into recreational angling.
If those initial fishing experiences hook a Texan on the recreation, they are likely to pony up the money for an annual license. And that license fee — $30 for a freshwater-only license, $35 for saltwater-only or $40 for all-water privileges — is crucial fuel for driving efforts to maintain, enhance and protect the state’s world-class freshwater and marine fisheries.
There is a reason more than 1.6 million Texans bought a fishing license this past year. They know it’s worth it.