The sale of rod licences in England and Wales is still down on last year but the summer holidays are giving cause for some optimism for the Environment Agency.

The EA’s monthly figures show they had clawed back a bit of ground on June’s sales but the decline was still there. By the end of July it was 2.17% down on sales versus a June drop of 3.59% and 4.33% down on income.

In July the EA sold 124,853 licences, compared to 124,221 in July 2025 however, it is currently £664,457 down on income compared to the same point last year and 15,401 on licence sales.

Annual adult (two-rod) coarse and non-migratory trout licence sales fell 6.49% (June -7.44%) with annual adult (three-rod) coarse and non-migratory trout licences showing a 4.76% fall (June -4.15%).

Meanwhile, annual senior (two-rod) coarse and non-migratory trout licence sales dropped by just 0.23% (June -0.58%) with salmon and sea trout licence sales down 7.70% (June -3.50%)

Tom Sherwood, the EA’s Senior Advisor (Fisheries Partnerships and Business Strategy), said: “With the summer holidays in full swing and plenty of marketing and comms content planned, we will need to have a strong August to catch up further and give us a realistic chance of not being down on rod licence sales across the whole of ’26/’27.”

With dry and warm weather looking to continue for a large part of the country, the EA will continue to push out dry weather messaging along with a ‘Day in the life of…’ style video of some of its Fishery Enforcement Officers, showcasing the important work they undertake and extolling the importance of rod licence purchases.

It will also be continuing to support the Angling Trades Association’s Take A Friend Fishing (TAFF) initiative, which runs throughout August.