Easter Weekend Brings Free Freshwater Fishing Weekend to Florida

Both residents and nonresidents in Florida can fish in public fresh waters across the state without a license during the weekend of April 3 and 4. All other fishing rules apply.

The Florida Legislature and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) designated the first full weekend in April each year to be Florida’s Free Freshwater Fishing Weekend. This year, that falls on Easter weekend.

{sidebar id=1}This is a great opportunity for experienced anglers to share their love of the sport with family and friends. It’s also a great opportunity to join the thousands of anglers who have taken the Anglers’ Legacy Pledge by visiting www.AnglersLegacy.org and entering partner code FLFWC. Anglers’ Legacy is about giving back what you’ve been given, and making a promise to introduce somebody new to fishing. There’s no membership fee and no obligation – it’s just another great way to help spread the fun of one of America’s most popular traditions and share our fishing heritage with others.

The Get Outdoors Florida! coalition (www.GetOutdoorsFlorida.org) encourages everyone, and especially children, to connect with nature by getting outdoors and enjoying active, nature-based recreation. Research conducted in 2009 by the Outdoor Foundation emphasized that recreational fishing is the number-one gateway activity that leads participants to increase their overall involvement in outdoor activities. This is vitally important as numerous diverse and extensive studies, such as those documented by Richard Louv in his best-selling book “Last Child in the Woods,” and expanded upon by the growing Children and Nature Network (www.ChildrenandNature.org), have demonstrated that activities such as fishing can lead to happier, healthier and smarter lifestyles.

So this weekend is your chance to get outdoors and go fishing right here in the “Fishing Capital of the World,” where virtually everyone is within 45 minutes of a freshwater fishing opportunity. No excuses! The weather predictions are looking good, it is just after a full moon and spring stimulates fish to congregate in shallow waters. The fishing should be great. So, Get Outdoors Florida! and burn off some of those chocolate-bunny calories with a free fishing adventure.

Visit MyFWC.com/Fishing to learn about fishing regulations in Florida.

This article originally published on March 31, 2010.

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