What is the best state in the U.S. for fishing? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's Florida. "We compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on community interest, access to gear and bait shops, license affordability, and proximity to water sources among 22 total metrics," Lawn Love explains.
Inside the Numbers
Lawn Love explains, in order to properly determine that Florida was ranked the best state in the country for fishing they had to compile and analyze the right data sets. They gathered publicly available data on community, access, affordability and fishing supplies. "Next, we calculated weighted scores for each state in each category," they explain. "Finally, we averaged the scores for each state across all categories." The states were then ranked by the highest average score.
#1 Rank
Florida's overall score was a 48.95, which was seven points higher than the number two ranked state (Alaska). Their community and access rankings were one and two, respectively. Having the second most miles of shoreline in the country certainly helps as well. Florida has the most charters and guides in the country, which makes sense because the Sunshine State also provides the second most miles of shoreline. There's an abundance of opportunity here. Florida also was number one in the amount of fishing piers accessible.
Lakes, Rivers, and Shores
Florida has 7,700 lakes, 10,550 miles of rivers and 2,276 miles of shoreline. Visit Florida detailed that tarpon, sailfish, sea trout, snook, grouper, snapper, mackerel, and large mouth bass can all be found with 100 miles of Tampa Bay.
The Florida Keys were called out as some of the best saltwater fishing. For a unique underwater excursion, book a summer trip to go scalloping along the Gulf Coast. In addition, the Gulf of Mexico coast was named the best for scalloping. Regardless of your preferred fish or body of water type, Florida is the best state for fishing.
