How many Americans go fishing in a year, how many of those anglers are women, and how many of them cast a fly instead of bait?
About 1 in 5 (our arithmetic). The 2025 Special Report on Fishing estimates that 57.9 million Americans ages 6 and over went fishing at least once in 2024, a participation rate of 19 percent, tied with 2023 for the highest on record. The report comes from the Outdoor Foundation and the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, and its numbers are survey estimates: 18,000 online interviews about the 2024 calendar year, weighted to a US population of 308,888,845 people ages 6 and over. Every figure below from that report has the same basis unless it says otherwise.
Women make up more than a third of anglers
The report counts 21.3 million women and girls who fished in 2024 (US, ages 6 and over, at least once, survey estimate), 37 percent of all participants, and tied with 2023 for the most since tracking began in 2007. Their participation rate was 14 percent, or about 1 in 7 (our arithmetic).
Men and boys are the other 63 percent, as read from the report’s “Who participated?” chart. That is about 36.6 million male anglers in 2024, from two figures the report prints in its text, 57.9 million minus 21.3 million (our arithmetic).
Freshwater, saltwater and fly fishing
Freshwater is still where most fishing happens. The report puts freshwater anglers at 43.2 million in 2024, a participation rate of 14 percent (US, ages 6 and over, at least once, survey estimate). Saltwater anglers numbered 15.1 million, the most on record, a rate of 5 percent on the same basis. Many people do both, so the two groups add up to more than the 57.9 million total.
Fly fishing drew 8 million participants in 2024 (same basis), a 3 percent participation rate, just under the record 8.1 million of 2023. That is about 1 in 7 anglers, and saltwater anglers are about 1 in 4, from the report’s totals (our arithmetic). Fly fishing is also the most male of the three: 69 percent of fly anglers were men and boys, the report says.
As for whether the fish really are biting: 87 percent of participants said they caught at least one fish on their most recent trip, according to the same 2024 survey.
The woman attached to an early English fishing book
For a sport with a male majority, an early English fishing text has a woman’s name on it, at least by tradition. The treatise of fishing with an angle is attributed to Dame Juliana Berners. The Book of St Albans, a collection of treatises on hawking, hunting and heraldry, was first printed at St Albans in 1486, and the fishing treatise was inserted in its second edition, in 1496, according to the catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).
The same BnF catalogue record lists the Book of St Albans as wrongly attributed to “Barnes, Dame Julians”, a variant of her name (our inference). The legend has held up anyway. In 1998, the International Game Fish Association made Dame Juliana Berners part of the first class of 29 people inducted into its Fishing Hall of Fame.
Fishing with no gear at all
Some anglers skip the rod entirely. Handfishing, or noodling, means reaching into underwater cavities and pulling out a catfish once it bites onto the hand, the Missouri Department of Conservation says. Missouri prohibits it; the department says legalizing it could jeopardize local populations of the fish, and notes that some other states allow it.
Data limits
The participation figures are survey estimates for one year, 2024, covering US residents ages 6 and over who fished at least once; someone who went once counts the same as someone who went every weekend. The men’s count and the “1 in” odds are our arithmetic from the report’s printed figures, not numbers the report prints; the men’s 63 percent share is read from a chart. Ice fishing is left out: the report has no separate ice fishing figure, and the federal 2022 National Survey report gives none either. The Berners story rests on tradition; the dates come from library and Hall of Fame records, not from any record of her life.
The short version
About 1 in 5 Americans ages 6 and over (our arithmetic), 57.9 million people, went fishing at least once in 2024. About 37 percent of them were women and girls, freshwater anglers far outnumbered saltwater anglers, and about 1 in 7 anglers fly fished (our arithmetic). A fishing treatise printed in 1496 is still attributed to a woman, though the BnF catalogue record lists the book as wrongly attributed to her.
Last checked: 2026-10-20, against the 2025 Special Report on Fishing, the Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogue, the International Game Fish Association and the Missouri Department of Conservation. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 Outdoor Foundation and Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, 2025 Special Report on Fishing (2024 data; participation survey by Sports Marketing Surveys USA for the Physical Activity Council), pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 13, 17, 21, 22, 44, 52 and 62. https://www.takemefishing.org/ . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- S2 Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, “Book of St. Albans” (notice de titre conventionnel FRBNF15064592). https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb15064592x . Accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- S3 International Game Fish Association, “Fishing Hall of Fame.” https://igfa.org/fishing-hall-of-fame-1/ . Accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- S4 Missouri Department of Conservation, “Handfishing Prohibited.” https://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations/handfishing-prohibited . Accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- Method: the “1 in” odds and the men’s count are Book of Odds arithmetic from the figures in S1.