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France · FR
France
Fédération Nationale de la Pêche en France (FNPF) and departmental federations (fresh water); maritime fisheries directorate (sea)
Rules change by area and can change mid-season. We explain what the rules mean and always link you to the official source — we never copy a limit table and call it current.
Licences — what you need
- • For fresh water you buy a carte de pêche online — it is issued through the departmental federation system and different card types cover different ages, durations and fishing methods.
- • Reciprocity matters: cards carrying the interdepartmental reciprocity options (the EHGO, CHI and URNE groupings) extend your fishing to other departments, while a purely departmental card does not.
- • Sea fishing from shore or boat needs no carte de pêche, but it is regulated — and lakes run privately can sit entirely outside the carte system, with their own tickets instead.
How the rules are organized
- • Fresh waters are classed as first category or second category, and the two categories carry different rule sets for species, methods and seasons — the category of the water is the first thing to check.
- • Within that national framework, departmental federations and local associations publish the practical rules and exceptions for their own waters.
Good to know — common mistakes
- • Sea catches are subject to marking requirements for certain species, so a fish kept unmarked can be an offence even where keeping it is allowed.
- • Some protected sea species are fully protected — the dusky grouper on the Mediterranean coast is the best-known example — so check protected-species lists before a Mediterranean trip.
- • A carte de pêche for public waters does not open private lakes: if a lake sells its own ticket, that ticket, not the carte, is your permission there.
Official links
Fishing locations covered in this guide
This page is a plain-language summary, not the law. Regulations change — including in-season by official notice — and if anything here disagrees with the official source, the official source governs.
AnglerPlan is an information service, not a regulator. If anything here disagrees with an official source, the official source wins — and please tell us so we can fix it.