Tennessee · Fishing license · Cost
How much is a fishing license in Tennessee?
$33 a year if you live here, $49 if you don't.
Just passing through? Three day fishing, no trout, age 16 and over costs $20 — the annual pays for itself from about 3 of those.
Every license price
| License | Who | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Combination hunt and fish, annual, ages 16 to 64 TWRA calls this the "minimum license required to fish and/or hunt small game". Tennessee sells its residents no fishing-only annual licence — this is the entry point even if you never hunt. Trout needs the supplement on top. | Resident | $33 |
| County of residence fishing, no trout, age 13 and over Only valid in the county you live in. The cheapest full-year option for someone who fishes close to home. | Resident | $10 |
| Junior hunt, fish and trap, ages 13 to 15 Valid for hunting, trapping and sport fishing. | Resident | $9 |
| Senior citizen hunt, fish and trap, age 65 and over The cheapest annual licence of any state on this site. | Resident | $4 |
| Senior sportsman, age 65 and over All-inclusive: hunting, trapping and sport fishing with no state supplements or non-quota permits needed. | Resident | $49 |
| Annual sportsman, ages 16 to 64 The all-inclusive licence at the full rate — it removes every supplement, trout included. | Resident | $165 |
| One day fishing, no trout, ages 13 to 64 The cheapest legal day of fishing in Tennessee for a resident. | Resident | $6 |
| One day fishing, all species, ages 16 to 64 Trout included, so no supplement needed for that day. | Resident | $11 |
| Annual fishing, no trout, age 16 and over | Visitor | $49 |
| Annual fishing, all species including trout, age 16 and over Exactly double the no-trout licence. | Visitor | $98 |
| Ten day fishing, no trout | Visitor | $30 |
| Ten day fishing, all species including trout, age 16 and over | Visitor | $61 |
| Three day fishing, no trout, age 16 and over The cheapest way for a visitor to fish Tennessee legally. | Visitor | $20 |
| Three day fishing, all species including trout, age 16 and over | Visitor | $40 |
What comes on top
These are separate from the base license. Buying the license alone is not always enough.
| Annual trout supplemental Residents need this on top of the combination or county licence to fish for trout. The sportsman licences and the all-species day licence already cover it. | $21 |
|---|---|
| South Holston Reservoir supplemental, age 13 and over A separate supplement for that reservoir. | $20 |
How long your money lasts
TWRA: "Annual licenses and permits are valid 365 days from the date of purchase unless otherwise noted." Like Arizona and Ohio, Tennessee runs no fixed licence year.
What we could not pin down
Rather than fill these in from somewhere else, they stay open until TWRA states them plainly.
- tn.gov served a broken certificate chain to automated requests during retrieval. The fee page and the free fishing day release were fetched directly instead and read locally.
- Tennessee has no fishing-only annual licence for residents on the fee page read — the cheapest full-year route that covers the whole state is the $33 combination hunt and fish licence. Whether a fishing-only product exists elsewhere in TWRA’s catalogue was not established.
- The county of residence licence at $10 is valid only in the county you live in. TWRA does not say on the page read what happens if you move county mid-year.
- TWRA lists many more licence types than the fishing ones reproduced here, including quota permits and big game supplements. Only the fishing-related products were taken.
