Licenses & permits

Who needs a permit? Most Missouri residents 16 to 64 need a fishing permit. Nonresidents 16 and up need one too. And most hunters 16 and up need the right hunting permit, unless they're exempt. The senior exemption — no small-game or fishing permit — is for Missouri residents 65 and older only, not nonresident seniors. Youth 15 and under, resident or nonresident, may fish and hunt most small game with no permit (deer and turkey are separate). An uncertified youth hunting small game must stay right with a qualified adult.

Trout has its own twist. A daily trout tag at a trout park is in ADDITION to a fishing permit (if you're otherwise required to have one) — not instead of it. A separate Trout Permit is needed to possess trout outside the parks, for winter catch-and-release fishing at the parks, and for ALL fishing year-round on upper Lake Taneycomo (above the Highway 65 bridge) — not just to keep trout there. The trout parks run a catch-and-keep season in the warmer months and a winter catch-and-release season.

For trout-park dates, length and possession limits, and how Lake Taneycomo works, see the Fishing guide's trout page.

Every customer has a nine-digit Conservation Number — your MDC customer ID, printed on your permits, in the apps, and on the card. The Conservation Permit Card (it replaced the old Heritage Card) carries multiple permits on one plastic card that new permits load onto automatically; it costs $5, doesn't expire, and stores your permit and hunter-education info. (Legacy Heritage Cards still carry a valid Conservation Number.) The card doesn't replace daily trout tags, notchable deer/turkey permits, the Federal Duck Stamp, or certain reciprocal permits.

It's one permit system, one permit account — bought a few ways. Online at mdc.mo.gov/buypermits or in the MO Hunting / MO Fishing apps (immediate); in person at any MDC office or 1,000-plus vendors; or by phone at 1-800-392-4115 (phone orders carry a $1 surcharge and can take up to 10 days). You can auto-renew and buy for several people; a Social Security number is required by law.

Most annual permits — small game, fishing, trout, and the combination — are valid from the day you buy them through the last day of February. Deer and fall turkey permits go on sale July 1; a few permits (migratory bird, conservation order) run through June 30.

A few people fish or hunt without the usual permit. The resident-landowner fishing exemption covers a qualifying Missouri resident landowner and their immediate household, on land they own — not just 'a family member.' MDC uses a 5-acre threshold, and for a pond or lake you must own all the land around it. Residents 65 and older skip the small-game and fishing permits, but still need migratory-bird, Federal Duck Stamp, conservation-order, trout, and species permits. Veterans with an honorable discharge and a 60%+ service-connected disability (or former POWs) have specific privileges with documentation — see MDC's veteran-benefits page. And there are two Free Fishing Days each June: no permit or trout tag needed, but every other rule, limit, and trespass law still applies.

Not certified in hunter education yet? The Apprentice Hunter Authorization lets a person 16 and up buy hunting permits and hunt in the immediate presence of a qualified adult mentor (18 or older, hunter-ed certified unless born before January 1, 1967). You can buy it twice — two permit years — while you work toward certification. (It can't be used for bear or elk.)