Fishing from a boat in Mexican waters takes a federal permit from CONAPESCA, the national fisheries commission. The good news: it costs less than a tank of gas, takes about five minutes online, and covers you anywhere in the country. The part people underestimate is that inspections are real — marinas, boat ramps, panga launches — and getting caught without one can mean a fine and confiscated gear.
Who Needs One
- On a boat, everybody. If there's fishing tackle aboard, every person on the vessel needs a permit — including whoever came along just for the boat ride. Age doesn't matter and intent doesn't matter. Inspectors are strict about this one, so buy for the whole party and skip the argument.
- From shore, nobody. Casting off the beach, a jetty, or a pier doesn't require a permit at all. If your feet are on land, you're fine.
- Your boat doesn't need a permit of its own — those went away in 2008. What it needs instead is a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) if the hull is over 4.5 meters (about 15 feet), good for ten years and issued by Banjercito. Watch out for this one: the Baja free zone exempts your truck from a TIP, not the boat on the trailer behind it. Apply for a boat TIP at Banjercito
- Charters and pangas nearly always include permits for their passengers. Ask when you book instead of assuming — if it turns out they didn't, the fine lands on you, not the captain.
How to Buy One
- Straight from the government: CONAPESCA's e5cinco payment portal — pick "Pesca Deportiva," pay, print at home. It's in Spanish throughout.
- Or through sportfishingmx.com, the government-authorized English-language issuer. Same permit, friendlier form — it's the one we'd hand a first-timer.
- Or just let your charter sort it out with the booking, which is what we'd do for a single day on the water.
Expect roughly $19 a day, $33 a week, $48 a month, or $69 a year. The fees are set in pesos, so the dollar number drifts with the exchange rate. If you'll fish more than four days in a year, buy the annual and stop thinking about it — the yearly permit runs twelve months from the day you buy it, not to the end of the calendar year.
Buy Your Permit
Permits come from CONAPESCA, not from us — buy on the official government portal or through your charter.
CONAPESCA official portal →Carry It With You
Keep the permit on you while you fish. A printed copy in a dry bag beats a phone that dies or loses signal three miles offshore, and it costs you nothing to have both. Carry photo ID with it — the name on the permit has to match.
Rules Worth Knowing
- Ten fish a day per angler in the ocean, and no more than five of any one species. On fresh water — rivers, lakes, dams — it's five a day in any combination.
- One marlin, sailfish, or swordfish, and it counts as five toward your ten. Shark is the same deal.
- Two dorado, roosterfish, or tarpon, also counting five toward the ten.
- One rod or line in the water per person. Catch-and-release is unlimited as long as everything over your limit goes back alive.
- Inside 50 nautical miles of shore, billfish, dorado, roosterfish, and tarpon are reserved for sportfishing — commercial boats can't take them there at all.
- You can't sell your catch on a sportfishing permit. That ban is also why legal marlin never shows up on a restaurant menu, whatever the waiter tells you.
- Totoaba and vaquita protections make the Upper Gulf of California a heavily restricted area. Don't improvise up there.
Bringing It Home
Filleting isn't allowed in Mexico, so your catch crosses the border whole or at least with the skin on — inspectors need to identify the species. Two more things catch people out at the line: California won't let you bring in a species it holds at a zero limit, even though keeping it was perfectly legal in Mexico (cowcod, canary, yelloweye, and bronzespotted rockfish are the usual suspects), and where the two limits differ, California's governs at the border. Mexico lets you keep five bocaccio; California allows three; two of them stay behind.
Driving Down to Fish?
Your US auto policy isn't valid in Mexico, and Mexican liability insurance is required by law to drive here — including on the trailer if you're towing a boat. That's separate from your fishing permit and from the boat's TIP, and it has to be arranged before you cross.
Get a Mexican auto insurance quote →Baja Amigo earns a commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you.General guidance only, not official CONAPESCA policy. Fees, rules, and bag limits change — confirm on the official site or with your charter before you fish.
Last updated August 2026
