What to know before planning the trip
Fishing in Paraguayan waters requires a current licence from MADES (Ministry of Environment), lagoons and ponds included. Get it online through SIAM (apps.mades.gov.py/siam), at the Asunción head office or at the regional offices in Pilar, Ayolas, Ciudad del Este, Encarnación, Coronel Oviedo and Concepción. Requirements may vary by activity type and zone. If you are going with a lodge or a guide, ask when booking whether they will arrange it. Fishing without a licence: fine of 30 to 500 minimum daily wages (Law 3556/08, art. 50), today Gs. 3.5 to 58.5 million; Decree 1837/2019, which regulates Law 5146/14 and covers the fishing law, scales MADES fines from 1 to 20,000 daily wages according to severity.
| Species | Minimum size |
|---|---|
| Golden dorado | 70 cm |
| Spotted surubí (P. corruscans) | 85 cm |
| Tiger surubí (P. fasciatum) | 80 cm |
| Manguruyú | 100 cm |
| Patí | 70 cm |
| Pacú | 45 cm |
| Pirá pytá (river salmon) | 45 cm |
| Boga | 45 cm |
| Sábalo | 40 cm |
for dorado: on the border, the higher limit rules. Fish below these sizes must be returned to the water.
Sport fishing gear is hooks and handlines or a rod, with or without a reel (MADES procedure; Law 3556/08, art. 19). Using lures with more than one treble hook is banned (art. 36, item k): a factory lure with two or three trebles must be left with a single one or have them swapped for single hooks. Snagging (item i) and artificial light as a fishing aid (item j) are also banned. The law publishes no bag limit for sport fishing: the fish is for personal consumption and selling it is banned. Foreign anglers do have a number: Res. SEAM 650/13 lets them take home as trophies up to 2 mixed fish plus 1 surubí or dorado, or up to 3 mixed fish (sábalo, boga, pacú or patí). The other written number is the one in the closed-season exception (Res. 511/2026, arts. 3 and 4): subsistence fishing by riverside fishermen with a commercial licence, from the bank, with a hook, up to 5 kg of mixed fish, excluding dorado, surubí, pacú and manguruyú.
Every year MADES sets by resolution a closed season for sport and commercial fishing during spawning; the only exemption is subsistence fishing by riverside fishermen holding a commercial licence, from the bank and without a boat. The 2026/27 one is Res. MADES 511/2026, of October 22, 2026: it starts at 00:00 on November 2, 2026 across the country. In waters shared with Argentina: until December 21 (50 days; in 2024/25 and 2025/26 it was until the 20th, in 2023/24 until the 15th). Inland rivers, streams and lagoons follow that same date. In waters shared with Brazil (the Paraguay River from the Río Negro to the Apa, the Apa River and the Paraná from Saltos del Guairá to the Yguazú): until January 31 (2027, the same date as in the last five closed seasons). During the closed season it is also banned to sell or move live bait, and to take or sell tareyí (tararira, wolf fish) and mbusu (swamp eel). Fishing during the closed season: fine of 1 to 20,000 minimum daily wages depending on severity (Decree 1837/2019), today up to Gs. 2,342 million.
Besides the annual closed season, fishing can be shut suddenly when a shoal gathers and becomes exposed. In Paraguay, Res. MADES 430/2026 of September 16, 2026 applies to the migratory shoal of golden dorado on the Paraná reported by Argentina, in which a large share of the fish are below the minimum size. While that shoal is in Paraguayan waters, any fishing aimed at it is banned: searching for it, following it, catching it or setting gear to cut off its path. A dorado from the shoal that bites anyway goes straight back into the water. It is not a general closed season: all other fishing stays open. It applies until another MADES resolution lifts it, and as of October 24, 2026 none had been published. On the Argentine side, the province of Corrientes has no annual closed season, but it closes fishing by administrative order when fish gather: because of this same shoal it closed all fishing on a stretch of the Paraná from September 9 to 29, 2026, when Disposición 1054 lifted it. Before you go, check mades.gov.py and, if you fish on the Corrientes side, the orders of the Corrientes Natural Resources office.
Paraguay requires no visa for tourist stays by visitors from most countries in the region, the US and the EU. Personal fishing gear enters without issue as sports luggage. To fish, a foreign visitor gets the MADES special licence for foreign visitors (Decree 6523/11, art. 37 c) and, when fishing outside an authorised tournament, registers with the National Fishers Registry with a copy of their ID and of their entry permit (Res. SEAM 650/13). Its cost is not on the MADES procedures page: in April 2025 the ministry announced it on its social media accounts, Gs. 322,881 for 4 days (three daily wages at the time). Confirm it when you apply, or ask your lodge when booking whether they arrange it.
Pira Experience, the sport fishing guide to Paraguay
Questions: [email protected]