Is night fishing allowed?

Yes, finally, at long last and after a few years of pushing, the Portuguese Government changed the laws for freshwater angling and sort of lifted the ban on night fishing as of the 1st of January 2018!

By “sort of” we mean that night fishing is still not allowed on most waters. It is allowed of some of them, in a very few cases, on the whole water, but on the others it is still banned or only allowed on certain sections of the water in question.

There are some sites still advertising packages stating that because of the fishing locations are on private estates it is ok to do night fishing. This is not so. The Portuguese law clearly states that even on private waters you still have to abide by the national law.

If you do happen to be caught breaking any of the fishing laws you could end up having to pay a hefty fine and/or even a prison sentence. So, as you can see, it really is not worth taking the risk.