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Canada · ON
Ontario
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
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
- • Ontario requires an Outdoors Card first, then a fishing licence — with two licence types: Sport (full harvest) and Conservation (reduced possession) — the type you buy changes your limits everywhere.
- • Licences are sold for one or three years; non-residents have their own versions, and some border waters honour shared arrangements.
How the rules are organized
- • Ontario is divided into 20 Fisheries Management Zones (FMZs), each with its own seasons and exceptions — plus hundreds of waterbody-specific exceptions on top of the zone rules.
- • The annual Fishing Regulations Summary is organized zone-by-zone; the zone map plus the exceptions list together are the rulebook.
Good to know — common mistakes
- • Sport vs Conservation licence is the Ontario fork in the road — same water, same day, different legal harvest.
- • Check BOTH the zone table and the exceptions list: sanctuaries, extended fall seasons and special lake rules live in the exceptions.
- • Ice fishing hut registration and removal deadlines apply in several zones; leftover huts are ticketed and removed at owner expense.
- • Live bait rules are tightening under the bait management zone system — moving baitfish/dead bait between zones is increasingly restricted.
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.