A Minnesota fishing licence bought in December runs about 3 months
Minnesota Fishing License: $25 and When It Expires
Every price Minnesota Department of Natural Resources prints, when the licence stops working, the age it is first needed, the days it is lifted and the stamps that ride on top of it.
against 395 in Pennsylvania and 30 in West Virginia
9 / 3 / 3
Prices, free days and stamps here
each one linked to the page it was read from
The answer
What a Minnesota fishing license costs, and how long it lasts
Licence yearMinnesota Department of Natural Resources
Minnesota runs to a fixed date on the agency’s own calendar, so a licence bought on the first of December is worth about 3 months. It stops on the last day of February. The ordinary resident annual licence is $25, sold as Resident Individual Angling License (code 111, Adult Annual). The same purchase on the same day buys about 13 months in Pennsylvania and about 4 weeks in West Virginia.
Minnesota runs a licence year from 1 March to the end of February, so whatever month you buy in, the licence stops at the end of February and a February purchase is worth a few weeks.
Minnesota charges residents $25 for Resident Individual Angling License (code 111, Adult Annual). Someone from over the line pays $51, which is 2.04 times as much. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources prices 9 licences in all, and every one of them is in the table below with the row it was printed in.
In Minnesota a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 90.
Minnesota publishes 3 days in the year when the licence requirement is lifted. What is lifted is the licence, not the rules: seasons, limits and size rules run as they always do, and a few states still want a free permit pulled first.
A licence is not always the whole bill. Minnesota sells 3 further stamps and endorsements on top of it, each covering water or a species the ordinary licence does not.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources sells licences through its own online counter.
Buy on 1 December in Minnesota and you get 89 days
Minnesota runs to a fixed date on the agency’s own calendar, which means the month a licence is bought in changes what the money buys. The same purchase on the same morning is worth 395 days in Pennsylvania and 30 in West Virginia, a spread of 365 days across the country for what is often the same twenty five dollars.
89 days
What an annual licence bought on 1 December 2026 still has in it, which is about 3 months.
Drawn against 395 days, the longest in the country.
When a Minnesota license expires
Minnesota runs a licence year from 1 March to the end of February, so whatever month you buy in, the licence stops at the end of February and a February purchase is worth a few weeks.
License year begins March 1 and ends the last day of February unless otherwise noted.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Every price the agency prints
All 9 Minnesota license prices
A state rarely sells one licence. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources prices 9 of them, and the duration beside each is the half that decides what the money is actually worth: a short term licence at a third of the annual price is the better buy for a weekend in almost every state in the country, and in 10 states it is the better buy in December for a lot longer than a weekend.
Each price below carries the line it was printed in. Several agencies print a base fee and charge a larger one at the counter once an issuing or transaction fee is added, so the quoted line is the thing to read rather than the number alone.
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Youth Annual Angling License, Age 16 and 17 (code 138)
$5
YouthAnnual
YOUTH ANGLING 138 Youth Annual (Age 16 and 17) Youth Individual Angling (exempt from trout/salmon stamp and spearing license) $5
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Individual Sports License (code 216)
$41
Combination hunting and fishingAnnual
ANGLING LICENSES 216 Sports Individual Angling and Small Game $41
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Lifetime Angling License, Age 16 to 50 (code 513)
$574
Lifetime or multi yearLifetime
lifetime Age 16 to 50 $574
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Who needs one
A Minnesota license is needed from age 16
29 states set the threshold at 16 and the youngest in the country is 9, so this is a number worth checking rather than carrying across a state line. The agency’s own sentence usually carries a condition the number alone does not: who a child has to be with, whose limit their fish count against, and whether the age is measured on the day or across the licence year.
The age rule in Minnesota
In Minnesota a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 90.
To legally fish in Minnesota, all residents of Minnesota, age 16 through 89, must have a current Minnesota fishing license unless an exemption applies (see below “Who doesn’t need a fishing license?”).
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
A public fishing area ramp with the state’s own board standing where the concrete meets the water. Everything on these pages works the same way: a figure is here because an agency printed it, and the sentence it was printed in travels with it. Fifty agencies were read on one day, and between them they publish 417 separate licences. “Lake Paradise boat ramp, Paradise PFA”, Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0
The days it comes off
Minnesota has 3 free fishing days
What is lifted is the licence and nothing else. Seasons, limits, size rules and closed water all run exactly as they always do, and several states still want a free permit pulled before the day. Nationally 42 states publish 62 of these and 8 publish none at all, so a free day in a neighbouring state does not travel.
May 9-10, 2026
Minnesota resident mothers only, not a general open weekend
Take a Mom Fishing Weekend — May 9-10, 2026 Minnesota resident moms may fish without a license.
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
June 5-7, 2026
Minnesota residents 16 and older, only while fishing with a child under 16
Take a Kid Fishing Weekend — June 5-7, 2026 Minnesota residents 16 and older may fish without a license if they're with children younger than 16.
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
January 16-18, 2027
Minnesota residents 16 and older, only while fishing with a child under 16
Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend — January 16-18, 2027 Minnesota residents 16 and older may fish without a license if they're with children younger than 16.
2026 Minnesota Fishing Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
What the licence does not cover
The 3 Minnesota stamps sold on top of a license
A stamp is a separate purchase and a licence alone does not carry it. This is the line most often crossed without anyone meaning to, usually on the first morning of a trip into water the angler does not normally fish. Where a state stocks trout, the hatchery is generally funded out of the stamp rather than out of the licence, which is why the stamp exists at all.
What Minnesota Department of Natural Resources sells on top of a licence, with the water or the species each one covers. A stamp is a separate purchase: a licence alone does not carry it.
The other half of what a licence fee buys. Agencies stock on a calendar, which is part of why so many of them run a licence year that starts somewhere other than January: eight states end theirs on 31 March, five on the last day of February, and two in late summer, after the season they were sold for has finished. “Hatchery truck at Stackhouse (22557766742)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, Public Domain
How Minnesota compares
19 states run a year from purchase, 10 run a calendar year
Minnesota runs to a fixed date on the agency’s own calendar. Across the country 19 states run a full year from the day of purchase, 16 run to a fixed date on their own calendar, 10 run the calendar year, one sells the same licence on two clocks, and 4 publish no rule at all.
On price, the national middle is $25.00, with Hawaii at $5 at one end and California at $64.54 at the other. A visitor pays anywhere from 1.25 times the resident price in Massachusetts to 5.71 times in Arkansas.
Minnesota fishing license questions
Minnesota charges residents $25 for Resident Individual Angling License (code 111, Adult Annual). Someone from over the line pays $51, which is 2.04 times as much. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources prices 9 licences in all, and every one of them is in the table below with the row it was printed in.
Minnesota runs to a fixed date on the agency’s own calendar, so a licence bought on the first of December is worth about 3 months. It stops on the last day of February. The ordinary resident annual licence is $25, sold as Resident Individual Angling License (code 111, Adult Annual). The same purchase on the same day buys about 13 months in Pennsylvania and about 4 weeks in West Virginia. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources writes: “License year begins March 1 and ends the last day of February unless otherwise noted.”
In Minnesota a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 90. The agency writes: “To legally fish in Minnesota, all residents of Minnesota, age 16 through 89, must have a current Minnesota fishing license unless an exemption applies (see below "Who doesn’t need a fishing license?").”
Yes. Minnesota publishes 3 days in the year when the licence requirement is lifted. What is lifted is the licence, not the rules: seasons, limits and size rules run as they always do, and a few states still want a free permit pulled first. The agency sets the first of them out this way: “Take a Mom Fishing Weekend — May 9-10, 2026 Minnesota resident moms may fish without a license.”
A licence is not always the whole bill. Minnesota sells 3 further stamps and endorsements on top of it, each covering water or a species the ordinary licence does not. Trout/Salmon Stamp Validation (code 128) costs $10 and covers anglers 18 to 64 on designated trout water, Lake Superior, or keeping trout. 44 states sell something like it.
$51 for Nonresident Individual Angling License (code 121, Annual), against $25 for a resident. Nonresident annual prices across the country run from $20.00 in Delaware to $174.14 in California, and short term licences are often the better buy for a single trip.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources sells licences through its own online counter. Every price and rule here was read off Minnesota Department of Natural Resources's own pages on September 23, 2026, and each one is linked beside the sentence it came from.
No. Each state licenses its own water, which is why the prices here are the prices for Minnesota alone. It is also why buying in December is a different decision in every state: the same purchase on the same day is worth about 13 months in Pennsylvania and about 4 weeks in West Virginia.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources read September 23, 2026, with every price, rule, day and stamp above linked to the page it came from. Fees change by legislation and by rule, usually with effect from the start of a licence year, and the agency page is what governs on the day.
