What’s New FOR THE 2025–2026 SEASON
As part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to keep you informed, we reserve this page of the digest each year to identify significant regulatory, legislative, and agency-related changes that you should be aware of each season. Please note that the information found on this page is not a complete list of regulation changes. For your convenience, all regulation changes appear throughout the digest in RED . Hunting
Inland Fishing • The age of a youth is being standardized throughout all rules to under the age of 16. • Established an 8-inch minimum size limit and a 20-fish daily creel limit for crappie at Shearon Harris Reservoir. • The daily creel limit for striped and white mullet has changed from 200 to 100 fish in aggregate and established a limit of no more than 400 fish total per boat. Trapping • Submersion trapping systems must be checked at least once every 72 hours, instead of daily. See page 53.
• For youth turkey season and youth days for deer and waterfowl hunting, the age of youth has been reduced from under 18 years of age to under 16 years of age. • The length of the youth turkey season has been reduced from a full week (7 days) to a weekend (2 days). See page 59. • The length of the statewide youth deer hunt- ing season has been increased from a single day to a weekend (2 days). See page 62. • The length of the mountain bear seasons has increased by 11 days, both segments now open on Saturdays, and all hunters may use unprocessed food during the second seg- ment. See pages 60 -61. • Three additional Designated Bear Manage- ment Areas have been opened for hunting by permit only: Panthertown-Bonas Defeat, Pisgah, and Standing Indian. See page 61. • The daily limit for pintails has been increased from 1 to 3. See page 72. • One of the youth and veteran/military wa- terfowl days will be in December. See page 72 and 73.
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Scan the QR code to view the inland fishing regulations in Spanish.
National Wild Turkey Federation North Carolina
• Committed over $495,244 for Wildlife Resources Commission projects since 2017 • Conserved or enhanced over 122,600 acres of wildlife habitat across North Carolina since 2014 • Secured over 7,300 acres of hunter access since 2014 • Produced over 31,852 new or lapsed hunters since 2012
LEARN MORE at NWTF.ORG
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2025–2026
North Carolina Inland Fishing, Hunting & Trapping Regulations
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