Fishing FAQs

It is illegal to move fish from one public water to another without a fish stocking permit. Moving fish between waters can introduce diseases, disrupt the adaptive characteristics of local populations, or cause competition between species that negatively affects game fish and aquatic resources.

The state legislature and DNR recognize the increasing use of public waters for tournaments and other organized activities and have actively addressed this issue. Anglers who are participating in fishing tournaments must comply with all existing laws and regulations regarding bag limits and boating safety. Individuals who possess fish above their individual bag limit, such as fish transported and released after weigh-in, must have a special-use permit issued from the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. Applications for these permits are reviewed for biological impact on the fish and lake community. If a permit is issued for this purpose, the individuals transporting these fish must have the permit in possession at all times during transport and must comply with all conditions on the permit.

In 2000, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law (HEA 1075) that allowed the DNR to regulate additional watercraft activities involving 15 or more boats on public waters, including fishing tournaments. However, the law did not dictate how group activities and tournaments would be regulated. In October 2002, the Indiana Natural Resources Commission adopted a rule (312 IAC 2-4-1) that outlined a process for regulating fishing tournaments on designated public waters. The contents of that rule are as follows. A fishing tournament was defined as an activity involving 15 or more watercraft used for taking fish where: (1.) persons compete for a trophy, citation, cash, or prize or (2.) a fee is charged to participants. The DNR conducts an organizational meeting between October 1 and November 15 of each year to establish dates for the next year on which fishing tournaments can be conducted. Each organization that receives a reserved date must then submit a completed license application within 30 days of notification or at least 60 days before the scheduled event, whichever is earlier. A license holder must report the results of the tournament to the DNR within 30 days after the tournament is complete.

Tournaments held on state properties (reservoirs), Sylvan Lake, Mississinewa Lake, Salamonie Lake, Lake Wawasee, and Syracuse Lake currently participate in a drawing to control the number, size, and impact of tournaments on public access facilities.

Regulations apply to "state-owned" fish. This includes permanent streams and any impoundment on publicly owned lands, as well as many waters on private lands. Private ponds that are isolated from streams are excluded. The Fishing Guide provides information on legal limits for all fish and gives more specific information for several species and water bodies. For instance, the size limits listed in the section of the Fishing Guide on "Bass Regulations" show that the legal length is 14 inches for largemouth bass in most inland lakes and Lake Michigan, but also lists several water bodies for which special size regulations differ from the standard restrictions. Please review this list for any water body that you intend to fish. If you have questions after reading the Fishing Guide about regulations or fishing opportunities in a specific water body, please call the Conservation Officer or District Fisheries Biologist for that area.

Cast nets are not approved gear for catching game fish in any Indiana waters (312 IAC 9-7-2 and 9-7-16). Cast nets are only legal for taking bait fish or minnows in most waters. Cast nets cannot be used within 200 yards below any dam on inland waters or boundary waters such as the Ohio River (312 IAC 9-7-15). Cast nets in most waters cannot be larger than 20 feet in diameter, and the mesh stretch can be no larger than 3/4 inch. Minnows taken for bait must not be of any species considered endangered or threatened.

It is illegal to possess, for any reason, a game fish that does not meet the bag limits or size limits indicated for that species. Any legally-caught fish may be used as bait. However, it is illegal to use live carp or gizzard shad for bait. Live shad are allowed to be used as bait at Brookville Lake, Cecil M. Harden Lake, Monroe Lake, Patoka Lake, Lake Freeman, Lake Shafer, Hardy Lake, and the Ohio River mainstream, excluding all embayments. Live goldfish are legal baitfish. Do not dump bait buckets or move any live fish from one lake or river to another waterway. The introduction of live fish into a water body is stocking and requires a permit from the DNR.

It is illegal to use live gizzard shad on most waters. Even though gizzard shad are native to Indiana, they can be detrimental to fisheries where they were not previously established. It is illegal to move live fish from one body of water to another. To keep gizzard shad in their native waters, there is a restriction on when they can be used. Another issue is that small gizzard shad and two species of invasive carp (bighead and silver carp) look similar when they are juveniles, and it can be difficult to distinguish these species. To prevent the further spread of invasive carp, use of gizzard shad is limited to waters where they already have established populations.

Three agencies within the state work together every year to provide improved access to this important information. They are the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), Indiana Department of Health (IDOH), and Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The IDEM annually collects fish and conducts tissue analyses. Each year, they review and improve their methods to ensure that the most effective data are collected to adequately assess risk to the angling public. Within the past several years, the three agencies have agreed to use the more protective “risk based assessment” (RBA) analysis that was developed for fish in the Great Lakes region. This change from the FDA action levels caused more waters to be posted in the advisory, as the levels of mercury which trigger listing was lowered. The IDOH issues hard copies of the complete fish consumption advisory and has posted it on its website every year since 1998. The DNR publishes an annual fishing guide, which also contains a full-page explanation of the significance of fish consumption advisories and how to obtain the complete advisory. The DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife prints and distributes one-half million copies of this guide each year.