The number of rod licences sold in England and Wales rose again last year, the third year in a row the Environment Agency has reported an increase.

In 2025/26, the EA sold we sold 973,859 coarse and game licences, which is up 4.16 per cent from the 934,000 recorded in 2024/25. 

This equates to 866,789 unique licenced anglers in England, a rise of 4.13 per cent from 832,449 in 2024/25, bringing in £25.14 million in revenue, which is £0.99 million more than the previous year. (4.11%) on the £24.15M received in 2024/25.

 Licence sales were up across all coarse and non-migratory licence categories bar one, with junior coarse and non-migratory trout rod licence sales again performing strongly.

Annual two-rod sales were up 16.73 per cent and annual three-rod sales rose by an impressive 46.58 per cent. Disabled two- and three-rod coarse and non-migratory trout licence sales also reported significant increases, up by 11.26 per cent and 14.93 per cent respectively.

Key rod licence categories in terms of income – the annual senior two- and three-rod coarse and non-migratory trout licence were both up, 2.05 per cent and 2.22 per cent respectively.

Until February, the EA wasn course to record an increase in its annual adult two-rod coarse and non-migratory trout licence, (the licence category which brings in the most income) but unfortunately fell short in the end, recording a decrease of 0.37 per cent on 2024/25. Some of this is undoubtedly down to poor weather during the month.

Overall salmon and sea trout licences continued to decline, with annual adult licences down by -9.15 per cent.

Environment Agency senior adviser Tom Sherwood said: “Recording an increase in licence sales for the third year in a row is really positive news.

“Although sales have increased the associated growth in income has largely been driven by the three-year incremental rise in rod licence duties, which has seen revenue grow from £20.9 million in 2022/23 to £25.1 million in 2025/26.

“Whilst the rise in sales is encouraging, this has largely been driven by the increase in junior rod licence holders which has almost. Junior licences are free. This, coupled with the rise in anglers purchasing disabled licences means that a larger percentage of our customer base are now in possession of a concessionary or free licence.

“The rise in junior angler numbers is, of course, promising for the future, however, the conversion rate of 16-year-old anglers to 17-year-old full fee-paying licence holders is still low.”

Although the EA has have recorded a rise in sales for the last three years, the long-term trend for angling participation is still downwards.

Tom added: “With rod licence prices remaining the same for 2026/27 it is imperative that we continue to see sales numbers rise otherwise income will stagnate or possibly decline.

“The biggest challenges ahead are to continue work on reducing the churn rate of our current customer base and to further effect and turnaround the long-term trend of decline in our key rod licence income products, the two- and three-rod adult coarse and non-migratory trout licences.

“Efforts to achieve this will be focussed through improved marketing and communication strategies and, hopefully, better retention of annual rod licence holders through automatic licence renewal, which came online in October 2025.”

The rod licence marketing campaign for 2026 starts on Monday, April 13th and this year will focus on younger lapsed audiences alongside its core 45+ anglers to ensure they continue to buy licences.