Going Fishing? Here’s Want You Need to Know
The 2024 Maryland Guide to Fishing and Crabbing is now available. The guide includes everything anglers need to know about fishing and crabbing in Maryland in 2024, including rules, license information, tips, free fishing opportunities, and more.
Physical guides are available at tackle shops around the state, and up-to-date regulations and information are online.
License Free Fishing Days — In Maryland, anyone may fish without a recreational fishing license on June 1, June 8 and July 4, 2024.
What’s New for 2024
Statewide:
- Now illegal to use largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, striped bass (and hybrids), walleye, muskellunge, tiger muskellunge, Northern pike, pickerel, brown trout, or brook trout as bait.
- Maryland now has a Black Bass Conservation Fund for anyone to donate any amount to black bass conservation in Maryland.
In Tidal Waters:
- There is a catch limit for longnose gar.
In Nontidal Waters:
- There is a new Youth-Only Trout Day.
- You can now use cut bait (limit of 1 quart).
- There is a protected 18″–21″ slot size for walleye in Deep Creek Lake.
- On opening day of trout season (March 30, 2024), the new start time in all Closure 1 and Closure 2 trout fishing areas is 6:30am.
