Leasing fishing rights

Metsähallitus may, at its own discretion, lease the fishing rights of state-owned water areas to private individuals, organisations or companies. In most cases, the leased site is a small pond or lake. Fishing lease agreements are always drawn up for a fixed term of no more than 10 years.

A fishing lease customer typically leases a water body to stock whitefish. Another general reason for leasing is to harmonise the management of water areas, in which case, for example, a joint owner or other owner of a water area leases a water body in a state-owned water area administered by Metsähallitus. This makes it easier to uniformly manage the entire water area and organise fishing so that it supports setting a target for the use and management of fishing waters.

In some cases, the lessee may be, for example, a fishing tourism operator that offers private fishing events to its customers or provides organised fishing services at the site. If the lease agreement is drawn up for a company providing fishing tourism services, a fishing tourism cooperation agreement is also required. You can read more about the fishing tourism cooperation agreement on the Fishing tourism page for entrepreneurs.

On this page

Leasing rules
Waters available for lease
Advice and more detailed information

Leasing rules

Leasing fishing rights is governed by the Fishing Act. The management of leased waters is determined by the management and use plans of fisheries areas.

The standard terms and conditions of Metsähallitus fishing lease agreement are:

Stocking is permitted for fish species and stocks that have been defined and approved in the use and management plans for fisheries areas. Therefore, the lessee should familiarise themselves with the use and management plan of the fisheries area in which the leased site is located. Information about the fisheries areas is available in Finnish at ahven.net.
The lessee should maintain cleanliness at the site to be leased.
In addition to the fishing right, the fishing lease agreement does not grant any other rights to use or access the site. Permits for off-road traffic must always be applied for separately. The lessee does not have the right to build anything in the area other than what has been specifically agreed upon in the agreement. The agreement includes a right to build a boat roller ramp, firepit made of stacked natural stones and an outfitting box. Any other structures must be agreed upon separately.
The fishing lease agreement also does not give the right to close off water bodies with fish barriers or similar structures.
The rental price is linked to the cost-of-living index.

Metsähallitus monitors the implementation of permit terms and conditions for leased sites in connection with field visits and wilderness supervision.

Leasing fishing rights does not remove the general fishing rights that apply in the water area. This means that fishers may still hook and line fish or ice fish free of charge, or fish with a lure using one rod after paying the fisheries management fee. However, the lessee may apply to the Economic Development Centre to restrict or prohibit general fishing rights (so called “OPV prohibition”) on the grounds and to the extent permitted by law.

Waters available for lease

The state-owned waters managed by Metsähallitus for which you can apply to lease fishing rights are listed on the Finnish- and Swedish-language pages. The list includes the municipality (kunta, kommun), name of the water body (vesistö, vattendrag), fisheries management area (kalatalousalue, fiskeriområde), size of the water body (koko, areal), a link to location information (sijainti, läge), annual price (vuosihinta, årsavgift) and any additional information (muut tiedot, övriga uppgifter). The list is organised by region.

You can apply to lease the water area of your choice using the application form (powerappsportals.com).

Please note that waters are leased in the order in which requests are submitted through the form. You can request further information about the lease agreement by email or phone, but entering into a lease agreement requires you to contact Metsähallitus using the form so that your request is registered in the system.