The Good Value man’s guide to purchasing a California fishing license-
First, I will never ever fish, ninja style, which means fishing illegally. All places I have been to have allowed fishing. I just don’t want to always watch over my shoulder every time I fish. I want to be ‘one’ with the lake and just concentrate on having fun and enjoying life. My blogs will be mostly about local freshwater lakes in SoCal that are cheap to fish or even free.
With that said, first, you will need a fishing license and in California it will cost about $62-. This is for a whole year. From the date you purchase to 365 days later. You can purchase one at https://wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Fishing or any Wal-Mart, Turner’s outdoorsman, Bass Pro Shops and Big 5 sporting goods stores. I can’t stress this enough, do not fish without a fishing license, if you are caught without a fishing license, the fee can be upwards of $1000- (https://www.law.ninja/california-fishing-without-a-license/#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20found%20guilty,of%20between%20%24250.00%20or%20%241%2C000.00.). It is not worth it. It is a good value and investment.
Now, also you can fish bodies of water that are designated fish without a license, but they are few and far in between and will charge you to fish there. Ranging from $50- to over $100- which, if you do the math will cost the same, on average, as you would if purchasing a license, but with far less choices to fish. I will have a detailed blog on that topic coming soon.
I prefer to pay the $62- and can fish just about anywhere. There are additions to the license like a second rod stamp which allows you to fish with two fishing rods at the same time, one bait and wait and one artificial, if you chose. There are others like the saltwater stamp which allows you to fish saltwater, the party boats or from ocean shore, but all of these are in addition to the $62- upfront fee. Most public piers, you do not need a license just check local laws governing the pier to confirm.
The information in my blogs can be found just by goggling and doing your own research, but I found that this particular information has helped me get to where I am today. If I had this information, at my beginning, it would have been a lot easier to fish. I would rather spend my time to fish than to do research.
Fishing license
