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Fishing Portugal's Rivers and Reservoirs

Researched and written with AI tools from official sources. How we make our guides

Which freshwater fishing licence you need, what it costs, where to buy it as a foreign resident, and the rules on seasons, sizes, and fish you must not return.

The Portugal Brief 10 min read

Fishing Portugal's Rivers and Reservoirs

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You live in Portugal and want to fish a river, stream, lake, or reservoir for fun.
  • You are visiting Portugal and want a short-term freshwater licence.
  • You fish from the bank, wading, or from a boat on inland water.

Not for you if: you fish the sea, an estuary, or a tidal river mouth. Read our guide to recreational sea fishing instead.

To fish Portugal's rivers and reservoirs, you need a freshwater fishing licence from the nature and forests institute (ICNF). A sea fishing licence does not cover fresh water. For residents, the national licence costs €23.93 for 2026 and a regional licence costs €14.34. Both run for the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. If your ID is a residence permit or a passport rather than a Portuguese Citizen Card, you must buy the licence at an ICNF counter, not at a cash machine. Fishing without a licence can cost €100 to €2,000.

Sea or fresh water: which licence you need

Portugal has two separate fishing licences:

  • Sea and brackish water: from the maritime authority, DGRM. It covers the sea, estuaries, and the lower river stretches under maritime jurisdiction.
  • Inland fresh water: from ICNF. It covers rivers, streams, reservoirs, lakes, and lagoons outside maritime jurisdiction.

DGRM says its licences are not valid for fresh water, reservoirs, lakes, and lagoons under ICNF. The two are not interchangeable. If you fish both, you need both.

The boundary is not always the coast. Many large rivers stay under maritime jurisdiction for some distance inland. ICNF publishes maps of where its waters begin on each river, on its "Limites de jurisdição" page. Some examples:

  • Douro: the whole Portuguese Douro is under the Douro harbour authority, but for fishing, maritime waters end at the Crestuma-Lever dam. Above the dam you need the ICNF licence, even though the harbour authority's area reaches Barca de Alva.
  • Tejo: maritime waters run up to Vila Franca de Xira.
  • Minho: the international stretch is under maritime jurisdiction.
  • Coastal lagoons: Óbidos, Esmoriz, and Albufeira lagoons are maritime. Melides and Santo André lagoons are inland waters.

On the international stretches of the Minho and the Guadiana, DGRM says you need a Portuguese licence to fish from the Portuguese bank and a Spanish one from the Spanish bank. From a boat, either licence is valid. On the international Guadiana, you may not take octopus, eel, lamprey, or shad.

The ICNF licences and what they cost

These are the general licences for 2026:

LicenceWhere it is valid2026 fee
NationalAll inland waters in Portugal€23.93
Regional NorteInland waters north of the Douro, including both banks€14.34
Regional CentroInland waters between the Douro and the Tejo, including both banks€14.34
Regional SulInland waters south of the Tejo, including both banks€14.34
Non-resident, 7 daysAll inland waters€17.92
Non-resident, 30 daysAll inland waters€23.93
Non-resident, calendar yearAll inland waters€59.76

The resident licences and the annual non-resident licence run for the calendar year you buy them in, whatever the date. A licence bought in November is valid only until 31 December.

The non-resident licence is for people who do not live in Portugal and for accredited diplomats and consular staff. If you live here, you buy the national or regional licence.

ICNF updates these fees each year in line with inflation. New figures apply from 1 January.

Special licences

Some waters need a special licence on top of your general licence. A special licence never replaces the general one. The 2026 fees are:

  • Recreational fishing zone (Zona de Pesca Lúdica, ZPL): up to €119.54, or up to €239.06 for carp fishing, set by each zone's plan.
  • Professional fishing zone (ZPP): €5.97 to €29.90.
  • Sport fishing concessions and reserved fishing zones: a daily special licence sold by the zone's manager or ICNF, as set out in the zone's notice.

A duplicate general licence from an ICNF counter costs €5.97.

How to buy a licence

If you have a Portuguese Citizen Card, you can buy the national or regional licence at any Multibanco cash machine. You need your Citizen Card number and your tax number (NIF). Choose Pagamentos e Outros Serviços, then Estado e Setor Público, then Licenciamento de Pesca Lúdica, then Pesca Águas Doces. See our guide to MB Way and Multibanco for how the machines work.

If your ID is a residence permit or a passport, ICNF says you cannot buy at a cash machine. Go to an ICNF counter during opening hours with your residence permit and NIF. If you do not have a NIF yet, see our guide to getting your NIF.

If you do not live in Portugal, the non-resident licence is sold only at ICNF counters. Bring your Citizen Card or passport. Plan this before your fishing day.

Check the screen before you confirm

At the cash machine, read the "Confirme os Dados da Licença de Pesca" screen carefully. ICNF says it cannot cancel or refund a licence once you confirm, if you chose the wrong type or typed your details wrongly. A licence for next year can only be bought at a machine from 1 January.

If you lose the receipt

For about 60 days after buying at a cash machine, you can print a free copy. Use the same bank card and choose Consultas, then the card operations option, then the second copy of a receipt (2.ª via de talão). Enter the day and month of the purchase and pick the licence. After 60 days, a copy from an ICNF counter costs €5.97.

Who can fish

To hold a licence, you must be over 16 and not banned from fishing by law or a court.

Children under 16 may fish only with an adult who holds a fishing licence. The child does not need a licence of their own. Parents or guardians are responsible for what the child does.

You need no licence to fish in a fishing park (parque de pesca). You do need a licence on private waters, even with the owner's permission.

Carry your licence and the ID you used to buy it whenever you fish.

When and how you may fish

Hours. You may fish only from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. The exceptions are night carp fishing in zones whose rules allow it, in signed private waters that allow it, and at listed free waters, plus night competitions run by the national sport fishing federation.

Night carp fishing in free waters is allowed only at places ICNF lists, such as Lagoa de Mira and zones of the Alqueva, Montargil, Maranhão, and Aguieira reservoirs. Artificial lures are banned at night. You must stay at least 250 metres from houses, tourist sites, and livestock buildings unless their owners agree.

Rods and hooks:

  • up to two rods in use;
  • one rod only in salmonid waters (trout waters classified by ICNF);
  • up to three rods for carp fishing;
  • one hook per rod, except artificial lures, which may carry more hooks or treble hooks.

Banned methods and baits: underwater spearfishing is banned in inland waters. You may not use live or dead fish, or fish eggs, as bait or groundbait. Natural larvae are banned in salmonid waters.

Boats. Any licence lets you fish from the bank, wading, or from a boat. Check that boats, and your type of motor, are allowed on that water.

Where you may not fish includes protection zones, professional fishing zones, private waters without the owner's permission, bathing waters during the bathing season, within 50 metres of locks and fish passes, and drinking water intake protection zones.

Seasons and minimum sizes

ICNF publishes two calendars: one for general inland waters and one for salmonid waters. Check the one for the water you fish.

Some key rules from ICNF's notes:

  • Never allowed: eel, sea trout, and salmon may not be fished by recreational anglers.
  • All year: carp, tench, and rainbow trout.
  • Minimum sizes: brown trout 20 cm; boga 15 cm; northern chub (escalo do Norte) 12 cm; barbel 20 cm; largemouth bass (achigã) in still water 20 cm; grey mullet (tainha or fataça) 28 cm; tainha-olhalvo (saltor) 45 cm.
  • Barbel, boga, and chub: ICNF's calendar shows these closed from 16 March to 14 June.
  • Largemouth bass: in still water, the season is 1 January to 15 March and 15 May to 31 December. In running water, you may fish for it all year.

In salmonid waters, all fishing stops while brown trout fishing is closed.

Brown trout exceptions

ICNF lists rivers and reservoirs where the brown trout season differs:

  • 1 March to 31 August on the Alfusqueiro and Arda and their tributaries, the Baceiro, the Rabaçal, the Tuela, the Vez, the Ribeira da Sertã, and stretches of the Beça, Coura, Mondego, Vade, and Zêzere.
  • 1 April to 30 September in the Alto Cávado (Sezelhe), Alto Rabagão (Pisões), Paradela, Venda Nova, and Salas (Tourém, Portuguese side) reservoirs.

Check the season for the river you fish, not just the species.

Fish you must return, and fish you must not

ICNF's calendar marks some species as "return mandatory" (devolução obrigatória, DO) and others as "return prohibited" (devolução proibida, DP). The aim is to protect native fish and control invasive ones.

Return mandatory. These native species must go straight back into the water alive: southern barbel (barbo do Sul), comizo barbel (barbo trombeteiro), Guadiana boga, bordalo, southern chub (escalo do Sul), and ruivaco.

Return prohibited. If you catch one of these, you must keep it. You may not keep or carry it alive:

  • bleak (alburno), chanchito, gudgeon (góbio), pike (lúcio), and zander (lucioperca);
  • the two North American catfish (peixe-gato-americano and peixe-gato-negro), European perch, and pumpkinseed (perca-sol);
  • gibel carp (pimpão-cinzento), roach (rutilo), and wels catfish (siluro);
  • signal crayfish, red swamp crayfish (lagostim-vermelho-da-Luisiana), and Chinese mitten crab.

In running water, largemouth bass and rainbow trout are also return prohibited. So are carp and goldfish (pimpão), except on stretches let as sport fishing concessions.

The red swamp crayfish is common in Portuguese rivers. Putting it back is not kindness; the law treats it as spreading an invasive species. For more on invasive species, see our guide to invasive plants and animals.

Catch and release is allowed for other species, but not during a species' closed season. ICNF counts trying to catch a fish as fishing.

Concessions and local rules

Much of the best fishing is in recreational fishing zones (ZPL), sport fishing concessions, and reserved fishing zones. Each has its own notice (edital) or rules, set or approved by ICNF. These can add shorter seasons, daily bag limits, fly-only stretches, catch-and-release stretches, and caps on the number of anglers.

Concessions must be signed with boards showing their licence number. ICNF lists concessions by district, with a summary of each zone's rules, maps, and where to buy the daily licence. Before you fish a named zone, read its notice.

Before you go

  • Buy the licence for the water, not the country. Sea and freshwater licences are separate.
  • If you hold a residence permit, go to an ICNF counter. The cash machine route needs a Portuguese Citizen Card.
  • Pick regional or national. A regional licence saves money if you never fish across the Douro or the Tejo.
  • Check the ICNF calendar for your river, and any zone notice.
  • Learn the return-prohibited list.

If you plan to fish from your own boat, see our guide to getting a recreational boating licence. If you own rural land, our guides to the hunting season and cutting down a tree cover two other common rules.

This guide is general information about mainland Portugal, not legal advice. Madeira and the Azores issue their own licences. Check ICNF's pages before you fish.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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