Maryland · Fishing license · Age
What age do you need a fishing license in Maryland?
From 16 on, with no upper limit.
The ages that matter
Under 16
No license needed
Children can fish without one. Everything else still applies though — limits, sizes and seasons do not change with age.
16 and up
License required
Carry it with you while fishing.
How Maryland DNR words it
Natural Resources Article § 4-604: "Any person 16 years old or older shall secure an angler’s license to fish in the nontidal waters of the State." The Chesapeake Bay and coastal licence under § 4-745 sets the same line, exempting anyone who "is under the age of 16". Maryland names no upper age at which the licence stops being needed in either section; the code refers to a separate senior consolidated licence elsewhere.
Quoted rather than paraphrased. With rules that carry a fine, the exact wording is the point.
Other ways to be exempt
Age is one route. Maryland DNR lists these as well.
- Landowners and their immediate family fishing on their own property
- Active military on leave, carrying the official leave order
- Blind people — the Bay licence is issued at no fee
- Anyone fishing non-tidal waters on the free fishing days the Secretary designates
- Purple Heart recipients, through a departmental programme of discounted angler’s licences and trout stamps
