Michigan: home to outstanding fishing, more than 3,000 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, 11,000 inland lakes, and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams.

There's no shortage of recreational opportunities to explore – and what better time to do so than the 2018 Winter Free Fishing Weekend!

The 2018 Winter Free Fishing Weekend will be held Saturday, February 17 and Sunday, February 18. As part of these weekends, all fishing license fees are waived for two days with residents and out-of-state visitors allowed to enjoy fishing on both inland and Great Lakes' waters for all species of fish during their respective open seasons. Please note all other regulations still apply during that time.

To encourage involvement in Free Fishing Weekends, organized activities are often offered in communities across the state. These activities are coordinated by non-profit groups, schools, parks (local/state), businesses and others. Will you be joining them and planning a 2018 Winter Free Fishing Weekend event?

If you would like to plan an event, check out Michigan.gov/freefishing for information and resources to help! On the site you'll find two toolkits; one focused on planning and the other on promoting your event.

Once your event is coordinated, please register it as an official 2018 Winter Free Fishing Weekend activity online at: http://survey.sogosurvey.com/r/T3SMaB. Upon doing so you will be contacted about receiving a packet of materials from Fisheries Division to use during your event.

Please join this year's efforts to help get more people out fishing. We welcome you to become a part of the tradition that is the annual Free Fishing Weekends – a time to get together and have some fishing fun!


Michigan.gov/freefishing