Fishing without a fishing card

In the sea, with rod or hand line

Yes

Free for everyone. You need neither a fishing card nor the state fee. In the no-fishing zones of the Oslofjord all fishing is forbidden.

Children under 16, in fresh water

Yes, with conditions

Inland species with rod and hand line from 1 January to 20 August, but not in watercourses with salmon, sea trout or sea char.

Under 20 or over 67, on state land

Yes, with Statskog

Statskog gives free rod and hand-line fishing to people who live in Norway, outside the state commons.

Everyone else, in fresh water

No

You need a fishing card or other permission from whoever owns the fishing rights.

In lakes, tarns, rivers and streams the fishing belongs to the landowner.

Sections 16 and 17 of the salmon and inland fish act give the owner of the land the exclusive right to fish, as far as the property reaches into the water.

The right to roam lets you walk and stay in open country, but it gives you no right to fish in fresh water. The Norwegian Environment Agency says it plainly: fishing in fresh water is a public right only for children under 16.

Fishing without permission infringes someone else’s right, and the penalty is a fine. That is section 49 of the act, and an attempt is punishable too.

The act also recognises free fishing: fishing that by local custom or another special legal basis does not belong to the landowner. There the county governor sets the rules. That nobody sells a card for a water does not make its fishing free.

Section 18 of the salmon and inland fish act gives children a fishing right of their own. These are its conditions:

• Under 16The right lasts until the child turns 16. The Norwegian Environment Agency says a child who fishes in fresh water without permission must carry ID that shows their age.
• 1 January–20 AugustFrom 1 January up to and including 20 August. For the rest of the year children need permission just as adults do.
• Inland speciesEvery fish in fresh water that is not salmon, sea trout or sea char. Brown trout, Arctic char, grayling, perch, pike and whitefish are inland species.
• Rod and hand lineThese two only. Nets, an otter board and other tackle need the rights holder’s permission.
• Where cards are soldThe child is entitled to the fishing card without paying.
• Where no cards are soldThe child may fish without asking the rights holder.
• ExceptionsNot in watercourses or parts of watercourses with salmon, sea trout or sea char, not in artificial dams, and not for crayfish. Local fishing rules apply to children too. Where children’s fishing harms stocking measures or substantially crowds out the rights holders’ own fishing, the Norwegian Environment Agency must regulate it.

In the sea anyone can fish with a rod and hand line without a fishing card, and rod fishing in the sea is exempt from the state fee.

You can fish from land in open country, from open quays and public breakwaters, and from a boat. Free does not mean without rules, though. For sea trout, salmon and sea char, this applies:

• As a rule the fishing is open all year, from land and from a boat.
• Closed 1 March to 30 April: most of the Ryfylke fjords in Rogaland, inner Hardangerfjord, and Møre og Romsdal except Smøla. Closed 1 March to 31 May: all of Trøndelag, and fishing from a boat in Nordland.
• Closed all year: the inner Oslofjord and the no-fishing zones in Færder and Ytre Hvaler national parks. Salmon is also closed in Tanafjorden, in inner Varangerfjorden and along the coast of Finnmark, and sea trout is closed in the fjords around Sunndalsfjorden and Tingvollfjorden inside the E39.
• At the mouth of a salmon river all fishing is banned for 100 metres out to sea, for other fish too. The exception is rod fishing from land while the river is open. The county governor may have set larger closed zones.
• From land it is one rod or one hand line per person, with up to two baits or lures. From a boat it is two rods or lines per boat, with one bait or lure on each. Legal baits are worm, spoon, spinner, plug and fly, and in the sea other organic bait too. The hook gap may be at most 13 mm, or 15 mm for a single hook. You must not foul-hook the fish, and you must not leave the rod while fishing.

For every fish in the sea, minimum sizes apply to many species. You may not fish closer than 100 metres to a fish farm, and you may not use live animals or fish as bait. Cod is protected in the Oslofjord.

In the no-fishing zones of the Oslofjord all fishing is forbidden all year, for every species and with a rod from land too. That covers the inner Oslofjord inside a line from Horten to Jeløya in Moss, and areas in the Færder and Ytre Hvaler national parks. Children may still fish for crab with a line there.

If you have fished for salmon, sea trout or sea char during the year, you must report your catch.

That is section 44 of the salmon and inland fish act, and it applies even when the fishing in the sea is free.

From a river you report to the rights holder on that river, in the form and as often as the rights holder decides. From rod and hand line in the sea you report to the Norwegian Environment Agency, on its Stangfiske i sjø site.

A new regulation from May 2026 tightens the rule: after each day of rod fishing in the sea, the catch is to be reported electronically. That part applies only from the date the Norwegian Environment Agency decides, and as of 6 October 2026 it has not come into force. The agency says the electronic reporting rules will follow once the necessary changes to the act are in place.

Fishing cards are sold in many places. The Norwegian Environment Agency names the municipality, mountain boards, forest management, landowner associations, angling clubs and private landowners. Many mountain boards also sell cards directly or through local shops, and in some places the local hunting and fishing association handles the sales.

If no card is sold at all, you have to ask whoever owns the fishing. As a rule only children under 16 may fish there without permission, and only within the conditions above. If the answer is no, or there is no answer, you do not have permission.

The map on Finnfisk shows the fishing cards sold on inatur. A water with no card on the map may still have one at a local shop, a mountain board or the landowner.

1. 1Look for card sales nearby. The Norwegian Environment Agency names sports shops, petrol stations and campsites as common places to buy a card.
2. 2If the water is on state land, Statskog or the mountain board manages the fishing. Statskog sells Statskogs Norgeskort for state land outside the state commons, and the mountain boards sell cards in the state commons.
3. 3If the water is on land the municipality owns, the municipality must offer fishing to the public, among other things by selling fishing cards.
4. 4Ask the local hunting and fishing association. In some places the association sells the cards, and landowners can lease out the fishing for up to ten years at a time.
5. 5Look the landowners up yourself. In the Norwegian Mapping Authority’s property register you can find the properties along the water for free, by address, farm and title number or on the map, and see who is registered as owner. A cabin plot by the water does not always carry fishing rights, because the fishing can be held back when a plot is split off.

In watercourses with their own stocks of salmon, sea trout or sea char the rights holders must manage the fishing together, so there is usually a joint body to ask. In Finnmark the local population has fishing rights of its own, under the Finnmark Act and the Tana Act.