The fishing index of Germany: Here’s where to fish best

Even though fishing was long considered boring and dull by the public, it has long since become a popular hobby again among Germans. More and more celebrities such as rapper Marteria or online star Knossi are professing their love of fishing, and the demand in the nation has also increased. Even on holiday, fishing fans take their tackle with them to go fishing on the many waters of the Federal Republic. However, depending on the region, fishing is an expensive hobby: in addition to acquiring a fishing licence, many regions incur additional costs such as the fishing permit as well as the fishing tax.
We have found out for you how much you have to pay at the 30 largest waters in Germany. We have calculated the costs for the fishing permit, the fishing licence and the fishing tax. We also compared the number of mentions of the locations on Instagram to find the most popular place to fish in Germany.
The result: on average, anglers in Germany pay 143 euros for a permit to fish for a year, nine euros in land tax and 175 euros to acquire a fishing licence. Find out here where you can get all this at particularly good prices.

Even as a hobby angler, you need a permit to fish in Germany, which is particularly lavish in some regions. Anglers at Lake Walchen in Bavaria have to pay 110 euros if they want to catch fish there for a month - top value in comparison. At Lake Forggensee, fishing is also expensive at 105 euros per month, and the payments at Lake Chiemsee and Lake Malchin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are similarly high (88 and 86 euros respectively).
Anglers get off much more cheaply if they fish at Lake Constance: a fishing permit costs 20 euros at Obersee, 28 euros at Untersee. Those who would like to fish cheaply in the east of the republic should go to the Großer Goitzschesee in Saxony-Anhalt: Here the monthly payment is also low at 35 euros, only one euro more is due at Lake Schwerin.

You can find out about all the costs of the monthly and annual fishing permits here:

Proof of a fishing licence is also compulsory in this country if you pursue fishing on the waters here. For adults, this is an expensive pleasure, especially at the Edersee: The online course, examination fee and application for the fishing licence cost a total of 282 euros. Anglers also have to dig deep into their pockets for the examination at Lake Constance and Lake Steinhude, at 240 and 239 euros respectively.
To acquire their fishing licence, angling enthusiasts should rather go to Lake Bärwalder See in Saxony, where the total amount is a reasonable 110 euros. The costs for fishing licences are also comparatively low in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: At Lake Kummerow, Lake Plauer or Lake Tollense, the costs total 133 euros each.

An overview of the total costs at all waters can be found here:

Especially in popular regions for fishing, maintenance is particularly important: this keeps the sites and nature clean and does not litter them. In order to be able to implement this financially, many federal states require a so-called fishing levy. The waters of Lower Saxony and Saxony are an exception: on the Dümmer, the Steinhuder Meer and the Bärwalder See, fishing from the shore is free of charge. The fee is also low in Saxony-Anhalt, where a fee of six euros must be paid, followed by Hesse: Around the Edersee lake there, the state demands 7.50 euros.
It is much more expensive in Brandenburg, where anglers are charged twelve euros. The costs are only slightly lower in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein (ten euros each), where there are many popular lakes for fishing.

You can find out which lakes are attractive without a fishing tax in this table:

Some of the waters are also very well known on the internet. Lake Constance is particularly popular, with almost 2.3 million posts. Bavaria is also busy posting: 521,900 and 304,500 posts respectively can currently be discovered with Lake Chiemsee and Lake Starnberg. The top five are rounded off by Lake Ammersee and Lake Walchen, which are particularly popular online with 277,000 and 144,300 hashtags respectively.
In addition, there are some lakes, especially in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, that are not yet widely known, at least online. These include Lake Malchin in the far north and Lake Krakow, whose hashtags appear 840 and 750 times respectively. Brandenburg is also home to an insider tip, Lake Sedlitz, which is mentioned in only 770 photos. However, this only applies to professional fishermen: fishing at the lake is prohibited for hobby anglers.

The entire social media comparison can be found here:

About the study
For the comparison, the 30 largest waters in Germany were evaluated according to four different criteria. These include the cost of a monthly fishing permit, the cost of a fishing licence per adult or youth, the fishing tax for fishing at the water body and the number of hashtags on Instagram.