Massachusetts · Fishing license · Cost
How much is a fishing license in Massachusetts?
$40 a year if you live here, $50 if you don't.
Just passing through? Freshwater fishing, three days costs $30.50 — the annual pays for itself from about 2 of those.
Every license price
| License | Who | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freshwater fishing, annual | Resident | $40 |
| Freshwater fishing, ages 15 to 17 Free, but you still have to get the license. | Resident | Free |
| Freshwater fishing, ages 65 to 69 Half price. Discounted licenses go to US citizens only. | Resident | $20 |
| Freshwater fishing, age 70 and over Free. The same free license covers residents who are paraplegic, blind or intellectually disabled — first-timers apply on paper, see the exemptions. | Resident | Free |
| Freshwater fishing, three days Same price as half a year of the 65-to-69 license — the annual is the better buy from the second trip on. | Resident | $20 |
| Saltwater fishing permit, under 60 A separate permit from the Division of Marine Fisheries. The freshwater license does not cover salt water, and this one does not cover fresh water. | Resident | $10 |
| Saltwater fishing permit, 60 and over Free — "although there is no fee to anglers 60 years and older, you must still get a permit". | Resident | Free |
| Freshwater fishing, annual The $5 Wildlands Conservation Stamp is added to every non-resident license on top. | Visitor | $50 |
| Freshwater fishing, ages 15 to 17 | Visitor | $8 |
| Freshwater fishing, three days Worth it for one trip; from about two trips the annual at $50 wins. | Visitor | $30.50 |
| Saltwater fishing permit, under 60 DMF charges visitors the same as residents. A valid Connecticut, New Hampshire or Rhode Island saltwater permit is accepted instead — see the exemptions. | Visitor | $10 |
| Saltwater fishing permit, 60 and over Free, and still required. | Visitor | Free |
What comes on top
These are separate from the base license. Buying the license alone is not always enough.
| Wildlands Conservation Stamp Added to the first resident license bought each year and to every non-resident license. The prices in the table are before this stamp. | $5 |
|---|---|
| Quabbin Reservoir, one day A separate one-day license for the Quabbin. MassWildlife lists it without saying whether residents and visitors pay the same, so it sits here rather than in the price table. | $5 |
Fees inside the price
MassFishHunt is run by a third party and charges on top: online, $2.75 administrative handling per license plus a 4.95 percent convenience fee on the transaction. At a sporting goods or bait shop, $2.75 plus an agent fee of up to $1.50. At a city or town clerk, $2.75 plus $1.00. At a MassWildlife or Division of Marine Fisheries office there is nothing on top — but only cash or cheque is taken. A free saltwater permit bought online still costs $2.89 in fees.
How long your money lasts
MassWildlife: "All licenses and permits are valid for the calendar year." Licenses expire each year on December 31, whenever you bought them — a license bought in December is worth a few weeks.
What we could not pin down
Rather than fill these in from somewhere else, they stay open until MassWildlife states them plainly.
- mass.gov refuses automated requests. These figures were read from the rendered live pages instead, the same way Ohio and Michigan were done.
- The Quabbin Reservoir one-day licence at $5 is listed without a residency marker, so it is named under the table rather than placed in the resident or the visitor column.
- MassWildlife’s published fee schedule runs 2022 to 2026 and describes a planned rise each year to 2026. What happens to the prices in 2027 is not stated anywhere read — this is the reason for the January review date.
- The freshwater licence and the saltwater permit come from two different divisions and neither covers the other. Nothing on the pages read says what happens on a water where the two districts meet.
