For some, fishing is a way to pass the time. For others, it’s a lifestyle that inspires dedicated trips — fly fishing in Montana, catching massive trout at the foot of Glacier National Park, casting in the legendary rivers in Idaho. Florida is in a category of its own, from lakes and rivers, to bays and shorelines in Southwest Florida, to deep water fishing charters on both the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic sides.
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The 10 Most Popular States For a Fishing Trip of a Lifetime
It’s hard to put a number on just how many people are making dedicated fishing trips farther than their home state’s borders. Captain Experiences, a fishing and hunting guide booking company, looked at the number of non-resident fishing licenses issued by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in the latest year data is available (2022). The team at Captain Experiences then narrowed that down the most popular states to take a fishing trip.
It doesn’t capture the full picture (free licenses aren’t listed, and the data leaves out the people who travel in their state for fishing trips, for example), but it is one reliable way to get an idea of the scale. And it’s only getting bigger.
Non-resident annual fishing licenses hovered at about 15 percent or less of the total share of state licenses from the late 1960s to the ‘80s. The number started to tick up in the following decades. The non-resident license proportion set a new record in 2022 with 9.4 million, or 22.3 percent of the overall fishing licenses issued.
The revenue from the (often more expensive) non-resident fishing licenses helps conservation efforts, and federal funding to state wildlife agencies is determined by the number of licenses sold. Then there’s the economic impact of fishing tourism from the people who book guides and purchase from local businesses while traveling. That amounted to $138 billion in local business sales and more than 690,000 jobs in 2022, according to estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cited by Captain Experiences.
The most popular states for cross-border fishing trips are those that are well-known for their chance at a catch. The Mountain West is a favorite, as is Alaska, which is a dream trip for many. In the Southeast, Florida leads the way but other states rank high as well. The Great Lakes region holds its own, too.
The 10 most popular states for a fishing trip
- Florida: 917,665 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $25,753,980
- Montana: 739,575 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $16,647,712
- Colorado: 511,912 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $12,335,290
- Alaska: 492,860 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $15,817,365
- Wisconsin: 448,237 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $12,146,592
- Tennessee: 388,475 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $13,353,929
- Minnesota: 377,439 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $13,376,465
- North Carolina: 275,808 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $6,324,127
- Michigan: 252,180 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $9,275,692
- Idaho: 247,744 non-resident annual fishing licenses, bringing in $10,241,245
For the full data set to see where each of the 50 states ranks, check out the analysis on Captain Experiences. 