Fishing in France

Freshwater needs a carte de pêche through a local AAPPMA association. Sea fishing from shore or boat requires no licence at all.

2 researched spots — 1 Freshwater, 1 Saltwater.

Licences and permits in France

To fish fresh water in France you need a carte de pêche, and the card is really an association membership: it enrols you in an AAPPMA, one of the approved local fishing and aquatic-environment protection associations, within the national recreational fishing network. The Fédération Nationale de la Pêche en France sells them centrally, which makes this one of the easier systems in Europe for a visitor — you can buy a daily card, a weekly card or an annual one, and there are reduced categories for minors, a discovery card for under-12s and a women's discovery card. Anglers wanting more than one département should look at the interfederal annual card. Sea angling operates under separate national rules rather than the carte de pêche. Closed seasons for pike and zander are set départementally, so the rules that matter are the local ones.

When to fish in France

France offers two quite different seasons depending on whether you face the Atlantic or inland. On the Brittany coast, European bass fishing runs from May to October, and the useful detail is tidal rather than monthly — the two hours either side of low water, at dawn and dusk. Inland on the Loire, summer nights are for wels catfish, autumn is the zander window, and spring pike fishing opens once the closed season ends. That closed season is the thing to plan around: the dates are set by the département, so a pike trip booked on national information can arrive to find the water shut. The Brittany bass season and the Loire predator season overlap enough that a summer trip can reasonably do both.

What the fishing is like

The two published French spots deliberately cover both sides of French fishing. The Brittany bass coast in Finistère is rock, reef and beach saltwater fishing for European bass, pollack and mackerel, worked on the tide — no licence needed, so it is the more spontaneous of the two. The Loire at Tours is big, slow, warm river water for wels catfish, zander and northern pike, and the catfish there grow to a size that surprises people who think of the Loire as a scenic river rather than a predator fishery. Both are intermediate: neither needs specialist skills, both reward knowing when to be there.

Species you can target

  • European bass
  • mackerel
  • northern pike
  • pollack
  • wels catfish
  • zander

Fishing spots in France

  • River Loire — Tours, Centre-Val de Loire. Freshwater, Intermediate. Target species: wels catfish, zander, northern pike.
  • Brittany Bass Coast — Finistère, Brittany. Saltwater, Intermediate. Target species: European bass, pollack, mackerel.

Official sources

Licence requirements and closed seasons change regularly. Always confirm with the relevant fisheries authority before you fish — each spot page links to its source.

Fishing regulations and licences by country · View the fishing map