Minnesota · Fishing license · Age
What age do you need a fishing license in Minnesota?
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 DNR words it
Minn. Stat. 97A.451, subd. 2: "A resident under the age of 16 years may take fish without a license." Nonresidents under 16 have three ways to fish legally under subd. 5(a): without a license if a parent or guardian holds a fishing license, with their own youth license, or covered by a nonresident family license — the last two also give the child their own limit. A nonresident aged 16 or 17 must buy the youth license. Minnesota sets no upper age at which the license stops being required; the free licenses go by disability and veteran status instead.
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. DNR lists these as well.
- Residents 16 or older with a developmental disability — a free permanent angling license
- Resident veterans with a 100 percent service-connected disability — a free permanent angling license
- Anyone helping a disabled angler who holds one of those free licenses needs no license of their own
- Foreign exchange students attending school in Minnesota
- Residents fishing from shore or wading on state-owned land inside a state park, and residents fishing from a boat or through the ice on waters that lie entirely within a state park boundary
