Fishing Portugal's Rivers and Reservoirs in 2026: A Practical Guide to the ICNF Licence, the 23.93 Euro National Card, Where Your Sea Licence Stops Working, the Trout Calendar, and the Fish You Are Forbidden to Put Back

Portugal licenses recreational fishing twice, through two different ministries, with two different price lists, two different regulators and two different sets of rules about what you may keep. Which one you need depends entirely on which side of an invisible line you are standing on, and the line is not the coast.

If you fish the sea, estuaries or the tidal reaches, you need a licence from the Direção-Geral de Recursos Naturais, Segurança e Serviços Marítimos (Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services, the DGRM). We covered that regime in full in our guide to recreational sea fishing in Portugal.

This guide is about the other one: the rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs, where the licence comes from the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, the ICNF), and where a valid sea licence buys you precisely nothing.

Where one licence stops and the other starts

The DGRM's own guidance puts it bluntly. Its licences cover ocean waters of the mainland, maritime inland waters, and non-maritime inland waters under the jurisdiction of the maritime authority. They are not valid for Madeira or the Azores, and they are not valid for non-maritime inland waters, fresh water, reservoirs, lakes and lagoons under ICNF jurisdiction.

The Douro is the example the DGRM itself uses, and it is the one that catches people out. The Captaincy of the Douro has jurisdiction as far upriver as Barca de Alva, near the Spanish border. That does not mean a sea licence works there. Above the Crestuma-Lever dam the water is inland water under ICNF management, and the licence you need is the one the ICNF issues. Two authorities, one river, one dam wall between them.

The other place the boundary matters is the international stretches. On the Minho and on the Guadiana, if you are fishing from dry land on the Portuguese bank you need a Portuguese licence, and from the Spanish bank a Spanish one. From a boat, either country's licence is valid. On the international Guadiana there is a further catch list you cannot touch at all: octopus, eel, lamprey and both species of shad.

The ICNF licences and what they cost in 2026

The general inland-waters licence is annual and runs on the calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December, whatever date you buy it. Buying in November gets you seven weeks. The fees are set by Portaria n.º 385-A/2017 and revised each year by inflation; these are the 2026 figures published by the ICNF:

• National licence: 23.93 euros. Valid across the whole national territory.
• Regional licence: 14.34 euros. One of three zones. Norte covers inland waters north of the Douro including their banks; Centro covers those between the Douro and the Tejo; Sul covers those south of the Tejo.
• Non-resident licence, 7 days: 17.92 euros. Whole territory.
• Non-resident licence, 30 days: 23.93 euros.
• Non-resident licence, annual: 59.76 euros. Also calendar-year, 1 January to 31 December.

Note what that table does to a visiting angler's arithmetic. A non-resident annual licence costs 59.76 euros; the resident national annual licence costs 23.93. The 30-day non-resident licence and the resident national annual licence cost exactly the same amount. The non-resident category exists for people not resident in Portugal and for accredited diplomatic and consular staff, so if you live here, you are on the cheaper table.

Then there are the special licences, which are add-ons and never substitutes. You still need the general licence underneath them:

• Zona de Pesca Profissional (ZPP) special licence: 5.97 to 29.90 euros, according to the management plan of the zone.
• Zona de Pesca Lúdica (ZPL) special licence: up to 119.54 euros, or up to 239.06 euros for carp fishing.
• Fixed fishery (pesqueira fixa): 119.54 euros.
• Eel fishing: 5.97 euros.
• Duplicate general licence issued at an ICNF counter: 5.97 euros.

How to actually buy one

There are two channels, and which one is open to you depends on the licence type.

General licences (national and regional) can be bought at any Multibanco cash machine, or at an ICNF counter. At the ATM you need your Cartão de Cidadão or Bilhete de Identidade number and your NIF, the tax number. If you do not have one yet, our guide to getting your NIF and opening a Portuguese bank account covers that step, and our guide to MB Way and Multibanco explains the network you will be standing in front of.

The ICNF's warning about the ATM route deserves repeating in full, because it is unusually stark for a government website: pay close attention to the "Confirm the Fishing Licence Details" screen, because errors in the licence type selected or in the identification details entered will not be refunded and cannot be corrected. If you pick Regional Sul when you meant Regional Norte, you have bought Regional Sul.

Non-resident licences are only available at ICNF counters. There is no ATM route and no online route for them.

If you lose the ATM receipt, you can pull a duplicate from any Multibanco for roughly 60 days after purchase, free: use the same bank card, then Consultas, then Consulta de Operação do Cartão no MB, then 2.ª Via de Talão, then enter the day and month of the original operation. After that window, a duplicate from an ICNF counter costs 5.97 euros.

Who is allowed to hold one

Two conditions, and they are short. You must be over 16, and you must not be under a legal or judicial prohibition on fishing.

Under-16s may fish, in both the recreational and the sporting categories, only when accompanied by someone holding a general fishing licence. The child does not need their own licence; the adult does.

One exemption worth knowing: fishing in a parque de pesca, a commercial stocked fishery, needs no licence at all.

The fishing day

Inland-waters fishing is permitted only from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. That is the default and it is not negotiable by preference.

There are four exceptions, all of them for night carp fishing or organised competition:

• Night carp fishing in a Zona de Pesca Lúdica whose edital, the published notice governing that zone, provides for it.
• Night carp fishing in properly signed private waters where the activity is allowed.
• Night carp fishing in free waters, but only at the specific locations the ICNF lists.
• Night sporting competitions, including training, organised by the Federação Portuguesa de Pesca Desportiva whose rules provide for night fishing.

Species, seasons and sizes

The framework statute is Decreto-Lei n.º 112/2017 of 6 September, which governs the management of aquatic resources in inland waters. The rules on which fish you may take, when, and at what size are set under it by Portaria n.º 360/2017 of 22 November, amended and republished by Portaria n.º 108/2018 of 20 April, and expressed in two calendars the ICNF publishes: one for general inland waters and one for waters classified as salmonid waters. Read the calendar for the water you are fishing, because the two differ.

The minimum lengths in the general calendar include brown trout at 20 centimetres, largemouth bass in still waters at 20, common barbel at 20, boga at 15, northern chub at 12, tainha (flathead grey mullet) at 28 and tainha-olhalvo at 45.

The trout season carries a long list of named exceptions, which is the part most likely to trip up somebody fishing a river they do not know:

• Brown trout runs 1 March to 31 August on the Alfusqueiro and its tributaries, the Arda and its tributaries, the Baceiro, the Beça downstream of the Portalagem stream at Cervos in Montalegre, the Coura downstream of the Pantanha stream mouth in Paredes de Coura, the Mondego downstream of the Ponte de Mizarela on the EN 556 near Guarda, the Ribeira da Sertã, the Rabaçal, the Tuela, the Vade downstream of the Fervença mouth at Ponte da Barca, the Vez, and the stretch of the Zêzere classified as salmonid water.
• Brown trout runs 1 April to 30 September in the Alto Cávado (Sezelhe), Alto Rabagão (Pisões), Paradela, Salas or Tourém on the Portuguese side, and Venda Nova reservoirs.

The rule that surprises everyone: some fish you may not return

In most of Europe, releasing a fish is the safe default. In Portuguese inland waters it can be an offence.

The calendar marks each species either DP, devolução proibida, return prohibited, or DO, devolução obrigatória, return mandatory. The logic is invasive-species control, and it runs in both directions.

Return prohibited. If you catch one of these, you may not put it back in the water. The list includes bleak, chanchito, gudgeon, pike, zander, American and black bullhead catfish, European perch, pumpkinseed, Prussian carp, roach, wels catfish, signal crayfish, Louisiana red swamp crayfish and Chinese mitten crab. Rainbow trout, largemouth bass, common carp and pimpão are return-prohibited in running water, with an exception for carp and pimpão on stretches conceded for sport fishing.

Return mandatory. These are native species under pressure, and they go straight back with no minimum size applicable: barbo do Sul, barbo trombeteiro (the comizo barbel), boga do Guadiana, bordalo, escalo do Sul and ruivaco.

The red swamp crayfish is the one that catches foreign anglers most often. It is everywhere in Portuguese watercourses, it is easy to take, and returning it to the water is not conservation. It is the opposite.

Concessions, quotas and the local edital

A large part of Portugal's best fishing sits inside a Zona de Pesca Lúdica or a sporting concession, run by a local club under an edital approved by the ICNF. Inside one of those, the national calendar is a floor and the edital adds to it.

A single real example makes the shape clear. On the Clube de Caça e Pesca de Antas zone on the river Neiva, running roughly 7,875 metres through Esposende and Viana do Castelo, the edital sets brown trout at 1 March to 31 July, minimum 20 centimetres, maximum four fish per angler per day; and chub, boga and barbel at 15 June to 31 July, minimums of 12, 15 and 20 centimetres, maximum eight each per angler per day. It splits the water into two lots, one obligatorily catch-and-release and restricted to a single rod and artificial flies with a trout-specific landing net, the other optionally kill with artificial lures and earthworm as the only permitted natural bait. It caps the number of anglers on each lot, at six and ten. And it prices the daily special licence by who you are: 0.50 euros a day for club members, 1.50 for residents of the riverside parishes, 1.50 for residents of the three surrounding councils, and 3.50 for everyone else, with access quotas of 40, 30, 20 and 10 percent respectively.

None of that is discoverable from the national rules. Before you fish a named zone, find its edital.

What This Means for Foreign Residents

• Buy the right licence for the water, not for the country. A DGRM sea licence and an ICNF inland licence are not interchangeable in either direction. If you fish both, you need both.
• The cheap regional licence is a real saving if you fish locally. At 14.34 euros against 23.93, the Norte, Centro or Sul licence pays for itself if you never cross the Douro or the Tejo with a rod. Just be certain which side of those rivers your water is on.
• The ATM screen is final. No refunds, no corrections. Read it twice before confirming, and have your NIF and citizen card number in front of you.
• Non-residents cannot buy online or at an ATM. If you are visiting rather than resident, budget a trip to an ICNF counter, and do it before the trip rather than on the morning of it.
• Never sell your catch. The legal definition of pesca lúdica is fishing for leisure in which the specimens caught may not be commercialised. Selling turns a recreational catch into an offence.
• Learn the DP list before you go. Putting back a pike, a wels catfish or a red swamp crayfish is prohibited, and an inspector who watches you do it is not going to accept that you were being kind.
• Check the season for your specific river, not for the species. The trout exceptions are named river by river and reservoir by reservoir, and the dates differ by a month at each end.

Two practical companions to this one. If you plan to fish from your own boat on inland water, our guide to getting a recreational boating licence in Portugal covers the carta de navegador de recreio and boat registration. And if you are working through the wider set of countryside permissions that a rural property brings with it, our guides to the hunting season and to cutting down a tree on your own land deal with the two most common surprises after this one.

Fees and calendars in this guide are the 2026 figures published by the ICNF and current at the time of writing. Fees are revised from 1 June each year with effect from 1 January following, so check the ICNF taxas page before you pay.