A Virginia fishing licence runs a full year from the day you buy it
Virginia Fishing License: $23.00 and When It Expires
Every price Virginia Department of Wildlife 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.
$23.00
Resident annual licence
One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish
365 day
Which clock it runs on
runs a year from the day you buy it
365 days
A licence bought 1 December 2026
against 395 in Pennsylvania and 30 in West Virginia
8 / 1 / 3
Prices, free days and stamps here
each one linked to the page it was read from
The answer
What a Virginia fishing license costs, and how long it lasts
365 dayVirginia Department of Wildlife Resources
Virginia runs a full year from the day it is bought, so a licence bought on the first of December is worth a full year. It stops on one year from the date of purchase. The ordinary resident annual licence is $23.00, sold as One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish. The same purchase on the same day buys about 13 months in Pennsylvania and about 4 weeks in West Virginia.
A Virginia fishing licence runs a full year from the day you buy it, so a licence bought in December is still good the following December.
Virginia charges residents $23.00 for One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish. Someone from over the line pays $47.00, which is 2.04 times as much. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources prices 8 licences in all, and every one of them is in the table below with the row it was printed in.
In Virginia a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 65.
Virginia publishes 1 day 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. Virginia sells 3 further stamps and endorsements on top of it, each covering water or a species the ordinary licence does not.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources sells licences through its own online counter.
Buy on 1 December in Virginia and you get 365 days
Virginia runs a full year from the day it is bought, which means the month a licence is bought in makes no difference at all. 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.
365 days
What an annual licence bought on 1 December 2026 still has in it, which is a full year.
Drawn against 395 days, the longest in the country.
When a Virginia license expires
A Virginia fishing licence runs a full year from the day you buy it, so a licence bought in December is still good the following December.
LICENSE IS VALID FOR ONE YEAR FROM THE DATE OF PURCHASE
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Every price the agency prints
All 8 Virginia license prices
A state rarely sells one licence. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources prices 8 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.
One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish
$23.00
Resident annualone-year
One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish | $23.00 | $28.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident License to Freshwater and Saltwater Fish
$39.50
Resident annualannual
Resident License to Freshwater and Saltwater Fish | $39.50 | $44.50
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident License to Freshwater Fish
$47.00
Nonresident annualannual
Nonresident License to Freshwater Fish | $47.00 | $72.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident License to Freshwater Fish for Five Consecutive Days
$14.00
Resident short termfive consecutive days
Resident License to Freshwater Fish for Five Consecutive Days | $14.00 | $19.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident License to Freshwater Fish for One Day
$8.00
Nonresident short termone day
Nonresident License to Freshwater Fish for One Day | $8.00 | $20.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident License to Freshwater Fish, for licensees 65 years of age or older
$9.00
Seniorannual
Resident License to Freshwater Fish, for licensees 65 years of age or older | $9.00 | $9.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Sportsman License to Hunt and Freshwater Fish
$100.00
Combination hunting and fishingannual
Resident Sportsman License to Hunt and Freshwater Fish, and to hunt bear, deer, and turkey, to hunt with archery equipment during archery hunting season, to hunt with muzzleloading guns during muzzleloading hunting season, to fish in designated stocked trout waters | $100.00 | $130.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Special Lifetime License to Freshwater Fish, through 44 years of age at the time of purchase
$265.00
Lifetime or multi yearlifetime
Resident Special Lifetime License to Freshwater Fish — through 44 years of age at the time of purchase | $265.00 | $270.00
Fishing License Information & Fees, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Who needs one
A Virginia 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 Virginia
In Virginia a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 65.
Residents under 16 years of age (also do not need a trout license).
Virginia Department of Wildlife 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
Virginia has one free fishing day
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.
September 25, 26, and 27
anyone, fresh and salt water, rod and reel only
During these three days, no fishing licenses of any kind will be required for recreational rod and reel fishing in both fresh and saltwater.
Inaugural Fall Free Fishing Days in Virginia: September 25-27, 2026, Virginia DWR, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
What the licence does not cover
The 3 Virginia 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 Virginia Department of Wildlife 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 Virginia compares
19 states run a year from purchase, 10 run a calendar year
Virginia runs a full year from the day it is bought. 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.
Virginia fishing license questions
Virginia charges residents $23.00 for One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish. Someone from over the line pays $47.00, which is 2.04 times as much. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources prices 8 licences in all, and every one of them is in the table below with the row it was printed in.
Virginia runs a full year from the day it is bought, so a licence bought on the first of December is worth a full year. It stops on one year from the date of purchase. The ordinary resident annual licence is $23.00, sold as One-year Resident License to Freshwater Fish. The same purchase on the same day buys about 13 months in Pennsylvania and about 4 weeks in West Virginia. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources writes: “LICENSE IS VALID FOR ONE YEAR FROM THE DATE OF PURCHASE”
In Virginia a licence is needed from 16. That is the commonest threshold in the country, shared by 29 states. There is a senior rate from 65. The agency writes: “Residents under 16 years of age (also do not need a trout license).”
Yes. Virginia publishes 1 day 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: “During these three days, no fishing licenses of any kind will be required for recreational rod and reel fishing in both fresh and saltwater.”
A licence is not always the whole bill. Virginia sells 3 further stamps and endorsements on top of it, each covering water or a species the ordinary licence does not. Resident License to Fish in Designated Stocked Trout Waters costs $23.00 and covers fishing designated stocked trout waters. 44 states sell something like it.
$47.00 for Nonresident License to Freshwater Fish, against $23.00 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.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources sells licences through its own online counter. Every price and rule here was read off Virginia Department of Wildlife 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 Virginia 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.
Virginia Department of Wildlife 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.
