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Every year, many anglers complain about the rising price of fishing cards. But this doesn't seem to be holding them back: the first sales figures for 2026 are good. The F�d�ration Nationale de la P�che en France (French National Fishing Federation) has revealed a few trends, stopping its figures 5 days before the opening of trout fishing season.
Increases everywhere
Sales of annual cards for adults and women are up 5.4% on 2025. Sales of youth cards are also up, by 10.25%. Seasonal cards (daily, weekly) follow the same trend, up 33.23%. Overall, sales of all cards rose by 6.71%. there's a lot of caution to be taken, as figures vary from day to day and hour to hour," adds FNPF President Claude Roustan. The mild weather this week may explain the phenomenon, but it's encouraging".
An SMS marketing operation was also to be carried out among 2025 members to remind them of the opening and the need to have their fishing card up to date. The final 2025 figures will be released in May, after the latest feedback from physical retailers. The trend is likely to be towards stability, or even a slight increase.
New cards?
The FNPF also explained that it was considering modifying fishing cards to bring them more into line with today's society: "We're seeing a change in demand for leisure activities," said Claude Roustan. The development committee is currently thinking about more suitable products: is it the annual card, the daily card, the weekly card? We're trying to identify which ones would be most likely to appeal to the fishing consumer. Compared with my generation, we can see that leisure consumption has changed".
Is this the first step towards a sliding-year fishing card? "We're not stopping at anything, but the study on the economic weight of fishing gives us some indications about certain products that could evolve," reveals the FNPF president, without revealing too much!
New consumption
people who fish for a full day are becoming rarer," adds Maurice Lebranchu, vice-president in charge of the project. Today, two hours of fishing is like two hours of tennis. Most day passes are taken (on the site cartedepeche.fr ) between 11 a.m. and noon, so these are really half-day cards. It's up to us to adapt, but it's not easy because making changes would have major financial implications, and behind that lie money, employees and the running of the network. For example, we all thought that for young people, the switch to the adult card at age 18 - a major step forward in financial terms - would lead to a collapse in membership. That's not true, it's much earlier than that, and there's a loss of loyalty among kids from the age of 11-12. There's a lot to think about".
The timetable for these reflections, carried out with a consultancy firm, has not been specified, but this could be a hot topic over the next few years!
