Skip to content
fishregs

2026 regulation year

Cheapest Non-Resident Fishing License 2026 — Ranked by Week-Trip Cost

Last updated

For a 7-day non-resident fishing trip, the cost depends on which short-term licenses each state sells. Some states publish a single 7-day pass; others require you to stack two or three 3-day licenses or even seven 1-days. This ranking computes the cheapest combination across all published non-resident options for the 50 states fishregs covers deeply for 2026.

The cheapest week to fish is in Nevada at $9 (1× annual). The most expensive among covered states is Montana at $84 (1× 5-day + 2× 1-day).

Ranking

Non-resident 7-day-trip cost across 50 states, cheapest first. The full ranking with figures follows in the table below.
RankState7-day trip costCheapest comboAnnual (compare)
1Nevada $91× annual$80
2Hawaii $101× 7-day$35
3New Hampshire $111× annual$63
4South Carolina $111× 14-day$35
5Delaware $121× 7-day$20
6Alabama $121× 7-day$53
7Maryland $121× 7-day$31
8District of Columbia $131× annual$13
9Louisiana $151× 10-day$68
10Georgia $201× 7-day$50
11New Jersey $201× 7-day$35
12West Virginia $201× 7-day$37
13North Carolina $231× 10-day$45
14Idaho $231× annual$108
15New Mexico $241× annual$56
16Virginia $241× 5-day + 2× 1-day$47
17Arkansas $251× 7-day$50
18North Dakota $251× 10-day$45
19New York $281× 7-day$50
20Wisconsin $281× 15-day$50
21Florida $301× 7-day$47
22Mississippi $301× annual$68
23Illinois $321× annual$32
24Pennsylvania $351× 7-day$55
25Indiana $351× 7-day$60
26Massachusetts $351× annual$35
27Rhode Island $351× annual$35
28Iowa $381× 7-day$48
29Kentucky $401× 7-day$55
30Maine $431× 7-day$64
31Minnesota $431× 7-day$51
32Vermont $431× 7-day$58
33Alaska $451× 7-day$100
34Tennessee $501× annual$99
35Utah $501× 7-day$90
36Kansas $531× annual$53
37Wyoming $542× 5-day$102
38Arizona $551× annual—
39Connecticut $551× annual$55
40Texas $581× annual$58
41Washington $603× 3-day—
42California $651× 10-day$174
43Michigan $707× 1-day$76
44Colorado $722× 5-day$98
45Nebraska $742× 3-day + 1× 1-day$76
46Oregon $751× 7-day$116
47Ohio $771× annual$77
48South Dakota $801× annual$80
49Oklahoma $811× annual$81
50Montana $841× 5-day + 2× 1-day—

1 jurisdictions are not yet ranked — deep fee data is still rolling out across the remaining states. Each state still has its own indexable page at /states.

Watch closures before you buy

Non-resident licenses are non-refundable and non-transferable. An in-season emergency closure — king-salmon escapement shortfall, drought steelhead heat-stress pause, harmful-algal-bloom red-tide event — can shut down what you came to fish hours after your purchase. Before committing to the cheapest state on the ranking above, check that state's emergency-order channel. The channel for every covered agency is below, in cheapest-first order.

Closure-risk feeds — 50 of 50 ranked states · 23 RSS feeds · 47 email sign-ups

How the ranking is computed

  • For each state, every published non-resident license duration (1-day, 2-day, 3-day, 4-day, 5-day, 7-day, 10-day, 14-day, 15-day, and annual) is considered as a possible purchase.
  • A dynamic-programming search finds the minimum-cost combination of those licenses that covers at least 7 days. The result picks whichever bundle is cheapest — sometimes a single 7-day, sometimes 2× 3-day + 1× 1-day, and occasionally an annual is cheaper than any short-term stack.
  • Add-on stamps (saltwater, trout, king-salmon) and resident-status discounts (senior, youth, disabled-veteran, family) are excluded. Coastal licenses are excluded when an inland equivalent of the same duration is available, since most freshwater anglers buy the inland tag.
  • Processing surcharges at point of sale are not modeled — each state's online vendor adds them at checkout.

Related comparators

Frequently asked questions

Which state has the cheapest non-resident fishing license for a week-long trip?
For the 2026 regulation year, Nevada is the cheapest of the 50 states fishregs ranks for a 7-day non-resident trip, at $9 (1× annual). The most expensive among covered states is Montana at $84 (1× 5-day + 2× 1-day). The full cheapest-first ranking, with each state's cheapest combo, is in the table above.
Is it cheaper to buy one 7-day license or stack several shorter ones?
It depends on the state, because not every state sells a true 7-day pass. Across the 50 ranked states, in 30 a single short-term license is cheapest, in 3 stacking two or three shorter licenses wins, and in 17 the full annual license costs less than any short-term combination. The "Cheapest combo" column shows the exact bundle each state needs to cover a week.
Why do non-resident fishing license fees vary so much between states?
Each state sets its own fee schedule, so a week of non-resident fishing ranges from $9 in Nevada to $84 in Montana — a spread of roughly 9.3×. The gap comes mainly from whether a state sells a short-term pass at all (states offering only a 3-day or annual force a pricier purchase for a week), how much it subsidizes residents over visitors, and whether trip add-ons like a trout or saltwater stamp are bundled or sold separately. This ranking excludes those add-ons so the comparison stays like-for-like.
Are non-resident fishing licenses refundable if a closure cancels my trip?
No. Non-resident licenses are non-refundable and non-transferable in every state on this ranking. An in-season emergency closure — a king-salmon escapement shortfall, a drought-driven steelhead heat pause, or a harmful-algal-bloom red tide — can shut a fishery hours after you buy. Before paying for the cheapest state, check that agency's emergency-order channel; the "Watch closures before you buy" section above links the direct channel for every ranked state.