Wisconsin · Fishing license · Cost
How much is a fishing license in Wisconsin?
$20 a year if you live here, $55 if you don't. Trout and salmon need a 10-dollar stamp on top, inland and Great Lakes counted separately.
Just passing through? Fishing, one day costs $15 — the annual pays for itself from about 4 of those.
Every license price
| License | Who | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing, annual | Resident | $20 |
| Fishing, spousal Covers both spouses — cheaper than two annual licences. | Resident | $31 |
| Fishing, senior (65+) | Resident | $7 |
| Fishing, junior (16 and 17) | Resident | $7 |
| Fishing, annual, first-time buyer Same 5-dollar price at any age, as long as it is your first Wisconsin licence. | Resident | $5 |
| Fishing, one day Can be put towards an annual licence for another 12.75. | Resident | $8 |
| Inland trout stamp Needed on top of the licence for inland trout. | Resident | $10 |
| Great Lakes trout and salmon stamp Needed on top of the licence for Great Lakes trout and salmon. | Resident | $10 |
| Fishing, annual | Visitor | $55 |
| Fishing, family annual The second family licence is then free. | Visitor | $70 |
| Fishing, one day Can be put towards an annual licence for another 40.75. | Visitor | $15 |
| Fishing, four days | Visitor | $29 |
| Fishing, 15 days Only four dollars more than four days. | Visitor | $33 |
| Fishing, 15 days, family | Visitor | $45 |
| Inland trout stamp | Visitor | $10 |
| Great Lakes trout and salmon stamp | Visitor | $10 |
Fees inside the price
Trout and salmon need a stamp on top of the licence: 10 dollars for inland trout, 10 for Great Lakes trout and salmon. The one-day licence covers everything except those premium species until you add the stamp.
How long your money lasts
Wisconsin runs a fixed licence year: it begins on 1 April and every licence expires on 31 March, whenever you bought it. A licence bought in March is worth days, not months.
What we could not pin down
Rather than fill these in from somewhere else, they stay open until Wisconsin DNR states them plainly.
- The licence year (1 April to 31 March) comes from a DNR news release about the 2025-26 year, not from the licence pages themselves; the pattern is fixed but the wording read names those years.
- Free fishing weekends: DNR runs them, but no dated 2026 announcement was read, so the rule stands here without dates.
- Whether the senior rate needs Wisconsin residency of a certain length was not stated on the pages read and is left out.
