Angling

Fishing Manufacturers and Conservation

Promoting Fisheries Conservation and Angling

For more than half a century, America’s fishing equipment manufacturers have shared a partnership with state and federal biologists through the Dingell-Johnson Act — a partnership that funds remarkable fisheries conservation and supports anglers at the same time.

This partnership would be impossible without you, the craftspeople and business owners who help fund the Sport Fish Restoration grants. Our Partner with a Payer initiative invites you to join us to see how your success helps conserve fish in our lakes, rivers, and oceans, and helps keep these waters wild, clean and accessible to all.

Celebrating 75 Years of Sport Fish Restoration

For 75 years funding distributed through the Sport Fish Restoration Act has delivered public access to America’s waterways, extraordinary angling opportunities, boating safety, fish habitat management, fish management and research, clean water, and improved human health and well-being.

Sport Fish Restoration funding benefits anglers, boaters, and the public
Since 1950, federal excise taxes on fishing equipment have been one of America’s most effective tools for conservation. These funds help ensure clean water, healthy fish, and public access to America's treasured waters.
Largemouth Bass

Restoring fisheries

Biologists study, monitor and manage more than 200 species of fish with federal excise tax funds, like the many grants used for black bass conservation. Once called “the most abused of all American game fish,” the largemouth and smallmouth bass fishery is now one of America’s finest.

Boat Ramp from above

Providing public access

In the past eight years, 319 new fishing and boating access sites have been constructed with federal excise tax funds. In total, more than 8900 public boating and fishing areas are maintained by Sport Fish Restoration funds.

Kids Fishing

Welcoming new anglers

Every year, almost 1.5 million people receive aquatic education supported by federal excise tax funds, like the hundreds of students that go through the Florida Conservation Commission’s fishing and boating camps each year. 

A Vermont Game Warden stocking fish in a river

Raising and stocking fish

Every year, 1 billion fish of more than 77 species are produced by 321 state fish hatcheries across the country, like this one in Vermont — all funded by Sport Fish Restoration grants using federal excise tax dollars.

Pennsylvania Partnerships

Highlighting Fish Conservation in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission manages sport fish, and maintains or creates new boating and angler access through a three-way partnership dating to 1950. Learn how excise taxes paid by the tackle and boating industries shape conservation and outdoor recreation alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commission. 

Partner with a Payer: Angling

Sport Fish Restoration Successes

Partner with a Payer strengthens the ties between the people who make a successful conservation partnership work — the manufacturers that pay federal excise tax through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Acts, the state agencies that conserve wildlife and habitat across the country, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Conservation Investment.

Did you know?

Sport Fish Restoration grants use federal excise taxes from manufacturing to ensure abundant fish and healthy habitat, increase angler access to millions of acres of fishable water, and welcome new people into the sport through education — a productive trifecta that ultimately benefits manufacturers.

Funding for Partner With A Payer

Your tax dollars at work

The Sport Fish Restoration Act authorizes a 10% federal excise tax on fishing equipment, a 3% tax on electric boat motors and tackle and fly boxes, import duties on tackle, pleasure boats and yachts, and a portion of the federal gas tax that is attributable to motorboats and small engines. The tax on equipment is paid by the manufacturer of these goods and the retail price includes the federal excise tax. These funds are apportioned to the states on an annual basis based on a formula. State fish and wildlife agencies must provide at least 25 percent of the grant project’s costs. This tax system is referred to as a “user pay – public benefit” system.

Sport Fish Restoration Webinar

Hosted by the Office of Conservation Investment & the American Sportfishing Association

This webinar was hosted by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Office of Conservation Investment (CI) to provide a better understanding about the Sport Fish and Boating Trust Fund.

In The News

Three adult chinook salmon swim in shallow water

Angling, Management, News

September 29, 2025
In California’s Central Valley, along the Merced River, the low rumble of bulldozers signals renewal. Crews are returning clean, sorted gravel to the riverbed, rebuilding spawning habitat that salmon and steelhead have relied on for thousands of years.
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Angling, Firearms & Ammunition, News, R3

September 26, 2025
Established in 1972, National Hunting and Fishing Day is a reminder of how hunters and anglers helped build the foundation of modern wildlife management in America. Outdoor pursuits like hunting and fishing, away from the hum of traffic and the grind of full calendars, connect people with nature. And this connection carries with it a responsibility.
shark swimming on artificial reef

Angling, News

August 14, 2025
Beneath the Atlantic surface, concrete pyramids, stripped subway cars, and massive steel skeletons of vessels lie purposefully placed across the ocean floor repurposed into bustling undersea metropolises. These are artificial reefs, human-made sanctuaries giving new life to marine ecosystems and new opportunities for anglers. 
Agencies and industry working together for conservation