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United States · VT
Vermont
Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
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
- • One fishing licence covers the state, with combination licences available; Lake Champlain fishing is covered by a special reciprocal arrangement with New York for most of the lake.
- • Free fishing day is a long-running Vermont tradition — licence waived, all other rules intact.
How the rules are organized
- • Rules are organized by water type with a list of special-regulation waters; Lake Champlain and its tributaries (and the Connecticut River with New Hampshire) follow shared frameworks.
- • Trout streams include special-regulation and catch-and-release sections listed by name.
Good to know — common mistakes
- • Lake Champlain's NY reciprocity applies to the main lake — tributaries and bays have carve-outs where the reciprocity stops.
- • Ice fishing is a defined Vermont season world: ice shanties must be identified and removed by deadlines, and some waters have special ice rules.
- • Baitfish rules are among the strictest in the East — only approved baitfish from approved waters, with receipts required from bait dealers in many cases.
- • Landlocked salmon and steelhead runs in Champlain tributaries have seasonal closures around spawning.
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.