Sicilia
Licensing:
- saltwater-recreational — residents SICILY REQUIRES NO REGIONAL SEA-FISHING LICENCE, and that is a decision rather than an omission: a regional licence for recreational and sport sea fishing from a boat and underwater was proposed and was removed from the regional bill before it was enacted as legge regionale 20 giugno 2019, n. 9. Recreational sea fishing in Sicilian waters therefore runs entirely on the Italian national regime — the free MASAF registration and D.P.R. 2 ottobre 1968 n. 1639 — which FishRadar carries in its Italian national pack, not here. INSIDE A MARINE PROTECTED AREA this is reversed: there you need a written authorisation from the ente gestore, and in several zones you cannot get one unless you are a long-standing resident. See aggregateLimits., non-residents Same for visitors at sea. Inside a marine protected area, residency in the AMP comuni is itself a condition for some permits — a visitor to the Egadi cannot fish zone B at all, whatever they pay.
- freshwater-recreational — residents Inland waters are the one place Sicily does license anglers, and it is done at ex-provincial level: the Liberi Consorzi Comunali (former province authorities) issue the "licenza di pesca nelle acque interne" of type B together with a tesserino di regolamentazione, against payment of the Sicilian regional government-concession tax. Application is per province, to the competent Ufficio pesca. FishRadar has no inland Sicilian hotspot, so this rule is recorded for completeness rather than to answer a live question., non-residents Same procedure. Fees and the exact documentation differ between the Liberi Consorzi; contact the Ufficio pesca of the consorzio whose water you intend to fish.
- saltwater-recreational — residents No paid licence for recreational sea fishing, but a free annual registration with MASAF (the "comunicazione di esercizio della pesca sportiva/ricreativa in mare", or census) is mandatory. From May 2026 anglers aged 16+ must complete the census and use the RecFishing app., non-residents Same free MASAF registration applies to non-residents fishing recreationally in Italian waters.
- freshwater-recreational — residents Inland/freshwater fishing licences are issued by each Region (Regione), not nationally; fees and rules vary by region., non-residents Non-residents need the relevant regional freshwater licence for lakes and rivers.
Sicily sets NO regional bag limit, minimum size, closed season or species ban for recreational sea fishing — a regional sea-angling licence was proposed and dropped before the 2019 regional fisheries law was passed, so at sea the rules that bind you are Italian national ones (free MASAF registration, 5 kg a day, one grouper a day, national and EU minimum sizes), which FishRadar shows on the Italy panel. FishRadar publishes no Sicilian species figures because there are none to publish, and inventing them would be worse than silence. What IS different in Sicily is inside the seven marine protected areas: Isole Egadi, Capo Gallo - Isola delle Femmine, Isola di Ustica, Isole Ciclopi, Isole Pelagie, Plemmirio and Capo Milazzo. There, recreational fishing needs a written authorisation from the managing body, is banned outright in the integral-reserve zones, is in several zones reserved to long-standing residents of the local comuni, is capped well below the national 5 kg, and breath-hold spearfishing is banned across whole areas. The Aeolian Islands are NOT a marine protected area. Inland waters need a licence issued by the Libero Consorzio Comunale. Marine protected-area rules are re-issued every year — check the ente gestore before you fish.