An estimated 57 million Americans, roughly 18% of the U.S. population, went fishing in 2025, down from 57.9 million in 2024, the first year-over-year decline since 2021, according to the American Sport Fishing Association’s annual report on fishing participation.
ASA’s 2026 Special Report on Fishing, based on more than 18,000 respondents and produced with the Outdoor Industry Association, was released yesterday.
Fishing participation remains up nearly 25% from a decade ago, even with the dip, but 19 million people dropped out in 2025, the highest churn rate on record.
“In 2025, fishing continued to bring Americans together, connecting people to the outdoors, sustaining families, and strengthening the communities and economies that depend on it,” ASA president and CEO Glenn Hughes said in a statement.
The report attributed some of the decline to an early-2025 pause in federal funding under the Dingell-Johnson Act’s National Outreach and Communications Program, which supports introductory fishing programs and angler recruitment, retention and reactivation campaigns.
The report included several bright spots: total fishing outings rose 3% to 918 million in 2025, saltwater fishing hit a record 15.5 million participants for a fourth consecutive record year, and 3 million Americans tried fishing for the first time, representing 11% of total participants, up from 9% in 2024. Participation among Black Americans reached nearly 6 million, the highest since tracking began in 2007, while Hispanic anglers climbed to an all-time high of 6.9 million, roughly double the 2015 total. Female participation dipped slightly to 21.1 million in 2025 but is up 34% over the past decade.
Click here for the full ASA report.
