Skip to main navigation

Additional General Fishing Rules, Regulations & Information

Collecting Baitfish

Any person who has a fishing license or is entitled to fish without a license may collect baitfish for personal use (sale prohibited) as specified in the following table. Fish taken may be used only for bait in hook-and-line fishing. These are the only circumstances where the use of seines, traps, cast nets, and gill nets are permitted unless a commercial license has been obtained. Possession of endangered or threatened fish species is prohibited.

Minnows, killifish, mudminnows, darters, sticklebacks, stonecats, smelt, alewives, suckers, and blueback herring are the only fish that may be taken.*

Note: Carp, goldfish or goby cannot be possessed or be used as bait at any time.

Carp and goldfish caught by angling may be possessed at any time in any number.

*Exceptions

• Possession and use of minnow nets and traps is prohibited on units of State land or waters where the use and possession of baitfish is prohibited.

• In the Hudson River below Troy Dam, and in Lake Champlain, Upper Saranac Lake, Lake Clear (Franklin County), Chazy Lake, Chateaugay Lake and their tributaries to first barrier, smelt may be taken only by angling.

• The use, or possession for use, of alewife and blueback herring as baitfish is prohibited in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Warren, and Washington counties.

• Lamprey larvae can never be sold as bait; lamprey larvae can be used as bait in that part of the Delaware River and West Branch of the Delaware River forming a boundary with Pennsylvania.

Taking and Possession of Fish

• A person may not fish for a species (not even catch and release) during the closed season for that species on a given water.
• A person may not have in possession, or intentionally kill or injure, fish other than the sizes specified and allowed for that species on a given water.
• A person may not possess, kill, or unnecessarily injure fish in excess of the daily limit for that species.
• The fish an angler catches and immediately releases uninjured will not be counted as part of the daily limit for that species.
• A person may continue to fish for a species while in possession of a daily limit for that species provided all fish of that species subsequently caught are immediately returned to the water. Special provisions are made for largemouth and smallmouth bass.
• A single, uninjured largemouth bass or smallmouth bass that an angler is landing, measuring, or in the process of releasing from a recirculating or aerated livewell, is not considered to be part of the daily limit.

Transportation of Fish

Transportation of fish as designated below is permitted except while fishing in New York waters.
Fish caught in New York State:

• No more than two day's legal take of non-salable fish may be transported unless a permit is obtained from a DEC Regional Office, or the fish are frozen, processed, and packaged for storage.
• Salable fish may be transported in any number. Fish caught elsewhere may be transported into New York State in any manner, except parcel post, in the number that may be legally exported from the place of taking, subject to the following:
• Fish that are salable in New York State may be brought in any time.
• Fish that are non-salable in New York State may be brought in any time. However, during their closed season (refer to General Angling Regulations) a $1.00 importation license must be obtained from the Division of Law Enforcement at a DEC Regional Office.

Non-salable fish transported by carrier:

• A tag must be attached showing name and address of both taker and consignee, and contents of the package.

Aquatic Insects

No aquatic insect (or any insect that lives in the water during any of its life stages) shall be taken from waters inhabited by trout, or from the banks of those waters, at any time.

Use of Gaffs

Use or possession of gaffs or gaff hooks is prohibited when fishing in freshwater, including the Hudson River upstream of the Tappan Zee Bridge, except when ice fishing.

Fish Carcass Disposal Law

It is illegal to discard any fish carcass, or parts thereof, into the freshwaters of the State within 100 feet of shore or upon any public or private lands contiguous to and within 100 feet of such water except:

• On private lands by owners of such lands;
• If properly disposing into suitable garbage or refuse collection systems or by burial;
• Where incidental cleaning of fish for consumption is permitted. However, resulting waste may not be disposed of within 100 feet of any public launching or docking site unless into suitable refuse collection system.
• Live fish and fish which must be returned to the water because of size limits, open seasons, and creel limits are not subject to the fish carcass disposal law.

Fish Cleaning Law

It is illegal when upon New York State waters to possess walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, brook trout, lake trout, or Atlantic salmon that have been cut, dismembered, filleted, skinned or otherwise altered so that the species and total length of such fish cannot be easily determined. However, these fish may be gilled or gutted. Other species of fish may be filleted provided that the skin is not removed from the fillets.

This regulation allows more effective enforcement of harvest regulations on protected game fish.

Foul Hooking

All foul-hooked trout, lake trout, coho salmon, chinook salmon, pink salmon and landlocked salmon must be released without unnecessary injury. All foul-hooked walleye in Oneida Lake and the tributaries to first bridge upstream from the lakemust be released without unnecessary injury to the fish.

Tagged Fish

If you catch a tagged fish, write down the tag number, length of the fish, date and location of capture, and send this information to the address on the tag. You will be sent information about the DEC tagging program and the individual fish reported. Don't remove tags from fish you release.

Purchase and Sale of Fish

Fish that are salable at any time include:

• Those species in the General Angling Regulations table for which there is no closed season or no minimum length.
• Fish taken on licensed fishing preserves. These fish must be properly tagged prior to removal from preserve premises.
• The following fish only if taken outside of New York State or if legally taken in licensed commercial gear: coho, chinook, and pink salmon, Atlantic salmon, lake trout, whitefish, pickerel, crappie, northern pike, and walleye. Additional regulations may apply to the sale of these imported fish; contact a DEC Regional Office for more information. Exception: the American eel is the only fish taken from the Quebec portion of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River that may be transported into, and sold in, New York State.

Fish that are non-salable, unless taken on a licensed fishing preserve or private hatchery and properly tagged, include black bass, landlocked salmon, muskellunge, and trout.

Exceptions: Sale of catfish taken in Lake Ontario and its tributaries upstream to the first barrier and in the St. Lawrence River is prohibited. Sale of American eel from Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Hudson, Harlem, and East Rivers is prohibited except for use as bait. Sale of coho, chinook, and pink salmon taken in Lake Erie, Niagara River, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River and their tributaries upstream to the first barrier impassable by fish is prohibited except that eggs may be bought and sold.

Commercial Use of Fish

Specific information is provided in two guides available from DEC Regional Offices:

• Inland Commercial Fishing Regulations
• Bait Regulations (taking and selling bait fish and aquatic insects)

Endangered/Threatened Species

It is illegal to possess fish that are officially listed by DEC as endangered or threatened. Endangered - eastern sand darter, bluebreast darter, deepwater sculpin, gilt darter, pugnose shiner, round whitefish, shortnose sturgeon and spoonhead sculpin. Threatened - lake chubsuckers, lake sturgeon, longear sunfish, mooneye and mud sunfish.

Wear Your Life Jacket...It's the Law!

Law requires every person under 12 years old to wear a Coast Guard approved life jacket of the appropriate size, securely fastened. This applies on all boats up to and including 65 feet long, including rowboats and canoes. A life saving device for each adult must be on board, too.