Fishing Licenses: A New Senior’s Discount

Updated on February 14, 2022
Fishing Licences for Seniors

By Rick Wallace, Founder of fishing information and review site, tacklevillage.com

Fishing is a popular activity for seniors – it’s fun, active and you can do it with friends or family if that suits.

It’s actually one sport where you very much get better with age. There is no substitute for the accumulated knowledge that senior fishermen and women have accumulated from hours on the water chasing their favourite fish species.

Fishing is also an activity that has many benefits for your health – both physical and mental.

And once you have the gear, fishing is relatively cheap with gas, food and licence fees the main costs involved in a trip to go fishing.

Now fishing licences are not a huge cost, but everyone likes a discount right?

The good news for seniors is there are many states in the US that offer a discount on the cost of fishing licenses and it is usually more than 50% off the standard price.

We did some research on which states offer the best deals for our 55m seniors when it comes to fishing licences and we found:

  • 13 out of 50 states offer free licences or exemptions to having a licence for seniors, including Florida, New York and Alabama
  • 35 out of 50 states offer discounted licences for seniors, including Texas, California and Michigan
  • Only 2 states (Wyoming and Minnesota) have no publicly available seniors exemption or discount scheme

You can check the map (or table) on our site to see if your state offers a discount or exemption and how to get more information.

We’ve included in the table the age at which the exemption or discount kicks in. Most often this is 65, but be aware there are variations and it is as young as 62 in some states and not applicable until 70 in others.

The scale of the discount varies between states too, but it is usually in the vicinity of 50 to 75% cheaper than a regular license.

Hopefully, this inspires you to get out and plan your next trip. Find out a good spot to go with this great locator map for fishing spots and make sure you’ve packed the right gear with our gear checklists for bass fishing, surf fishing, trout fishing and fly fishing.

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