Fishing · 7 min
Licences, regulations and using the guide
Why this matters
The state lets you consult the freshwater fishing regulations guide during this exam, which tells you exactly what it wants: not memorised limits, but a guide who can find the right answer for the right water on the right date. That is also the actual job.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- State who needs a New York fishing licence and the guide's responsibility for clients
- Navigate the regulations guide to a specific water and species
- Explain the special regulations that override the statewide ones
Licences
- A New York fishing licence is required for anyone 16 and over to fish the fresh waters of the state. Under 16 fishes free
- Marine waters use a separate Recreational Marine Fishing Registry rather than a licence
- Licences run for a fixed term from date of purchase, and are sold online, at DEC offices and at licence issuing agents
- Free Fishing Days are set each year, when anyone may fish fresh water without a licence. All other regulations, seasons, sizes and limits still apply
- As a hunting or fishing guide, ECL 11-0533(3) means you need the sporting licence yourself. Your clients need theirs, and it is your job to check, because the trip is your product and the summons is theirs
How the regulations guide is organised, and why that matters
The exam allows the guide, and 30 minutes is not long enough to read it cover to cover. Know the structure before the clock starts.
- Statewide angling regulations: the default seasons, minimum lengths and daily limits by species. This is where you start
- County-by-county special regulations: the exceptions, and they are extensive. If a water is listed there, the special regulation overrides the statewide one
- Great Lakes and tributary regulations, which are their own scheme
- General regulations: methods, baitfish, ice fishing, tagging, transport
The single most important habit: look up the specific water, by county, every time. A guide who quotes the statewide trout limit on a water with a special regulation has given a client bad advice with their name on it.
The rules that catch people
- Seasons differ by species and by water, and many trout waters now run a harvest season and a separate catch-and-release season with tackle restrictions
- Minimum length is measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail, and it is measured before you decide, not after
- Daily limit is per angler, and fish in the cooler count. A guide's boat with four clients does not pool a limit
- Baitfish rules are strict. Only listed species may be used, and in many waters only certified disease-free baitfish bought with a receipt. Personally collected baitfish generally may be used only in the water where they were taken. Never dump a bait bucket: that is a leading route for spreading disease and invasive species
- Ice fishing has its own rules on the number of lines and tip-ups, and on which waters are open
- Fish may not be transported alive between waters
From the field
A client asks whether he can keep the 14-inch brown trout he just landed. You do not answer from memory. You open the guide, find the county, find the water, and read the special regulation, which sets a 12-inch minimum and a three-fish limit on that stretch. Thirty seconds, and it is right.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.