Fishing in Hampstead Heath

Date updated: 7/22/2021

The angling season is now open.

Hampstead Heath is a great place to fish, with five ponds to fish on and carp, bream, roach, rudd, tench, gudgeon, perch and pike to catch.

Fishing on Hampstead Heath

You do need a permit and an Environment Agency rod licence to fish here. Find out how to get these below.

Fishing is allowed on five of our ponds, these are:

You can find each of our ponds our our Heath map:

Plan your day out on the Heath

You can apply online for a fishing permit. There is a £10.13 charge for this permit.

There are a few rules you need to follow when fishing on the Heath. You can read up on these below.

you must not fish between 15 March and 15 June
night fishing is not allowed by under 16s unless accompanied by an adult
you must present your permit and rod licence if it's requested by our staff
you must not fish anywhere that there's a risk of snagging trees, vegetation or underwater obstacles
you must put all rubbish in bins or take it with you
you must not use waders to enter any pond to fish
you must not put in or remove any fish, animals or plants to any pond

you can only use three rods at once
- you'll need two Environment Agency rod licences
you can't leave baited rods unattended in the water
you can't use bait boats, live bait or bait nuts
you should use a minimal amount of ground bait to look after the water quality of the pond
you must take away any unused bait
you can't use:
- lures
- barbed hooks
- bent hooks
- lead shot
- tethered rigs
- bolt rigs
- or braided lines
you must have your hook line at a lower breaking strain than your reel line
you must not have your reel line attached directly to your hook without a weaker link
your tackle must be free to slide off the line
if you're pike fishing, your minimum line breaking strain must be 12lb and have a minimum trace of 18" of 20lb wire
you must remove all broken line to stop waterfowl getting snared by it

you must handle fish carefully with wet hands and equipment
you should make sure that watch straps and jewellery don't injure fish when handling them
you must have a landing net
you can't use keep nets or carp sacks
you must use suitable knotless landing nets
- your net should be a minimum 106cm if fishing for carp
you must have a disgorger and forceps for removing hooks
you must use hooking mats to unhook large fish
you must use a weigh sling or bag and hold it above the unhooking mat when weighing
if you're photographing fish:
- your equipment must be ready before you bring the fish to the bank and you must photograph it as quickly as possible
- the fish should be photographed over the mat as close to the ground as possible
you must return all fish to the pond as quickly as possible
you must use a sling or enclosed mat to put the fish back in the water