50 Best Rock Songs About Fishing
Top Rock Tracks for Fishing Trips
There’s a strange kind of peace that comes with casting a line. You’re out there with the sun in your eyes, waiting on a tug that might take minutes or hours, and the music you queue up can make the difference between calm focus and restless pacing. Some tracks really sink into that rhythm, carrying the patience and the quiet, while others fight against it with a messy, loud energy that mirrors the slap of waves on the side of a boat. A few might not be literally tied to rods and reels, but the mood lines up anyway, the kind of tracks that play well when you’re staring at ripples and wondering what’s down there.
Fishing has a lot of moods. Sometimes it’s laid back with an almost lazy drift where you want the music to keep time without demanding attention. Other times it’s rowdy, with beer cans tipping over in the grass, a cooler on its last block of ice, and everyone arguing over who had the biggest catch last season. There are pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that slide into those scenes, no matter if the lyrics mention hooks or lakes at all. Some tracks lean into the grit and echo of the outdoors, others sneak in a vibe that feels like a secret anthem for whoever’s holding the rod.
It’s not always a postcard moment. There are tangled lines, burned shoulders, long silences broken up by the wrong song on shuffle. That’s why certain tracks hit harder, the ones that match the mess and still feel right when the bobber dips under. Some aren’t written with fishing in mind, but they find their way into that world anyway, blasting through tinny speakers or humming low through headphones. Here are the best rock songs for fishing playlists.
Top 10 Fishing Rock Songs
1. 'John the Fisherman' by Primus
2. 'Fish On' by Primus
3. 'A Pirate Looks at Forty' by Jimmy Buffett
4. 'Fish' by Craig Campbell
5. 'Fishing in the Dark' by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
6. 'Barracuda' by Heart
7. 'Take Me to the River' by Al Green
8. 'Proud Mary' by Creedence Clearwater Revival
9. 'Green River' by Creedence Clearwater Revival
10. 'The River' by Bruce Springsteen
Rock Music with Fishing Themes #11 to 20
11. 'Black Water' by The Doobie Brothers
12. 'Moby Dick' by Led Zeppelin
13. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot
14. 'Fisherman's Blues' by The Waterboys
15. 'Rockaway Beach' by Ramones
16. 'The Ocean' by Led Zeppelin
17. 'Ocean Man' by Ween
18. 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding
19. 'Southern Cross' by Crosby, Stills & Nash
20. 'Come Sail Away' by Styx
Top Songs About Fishing and Nature #21 to 30
21. 'A Salty Dog' by Procol Harum
22. 'Surfin' USA' by The Beach Boys
23. 'Yellow Submarine' by The Beatles
24. 'Octopus's Garden' by The Beatles
25. 'Sail On, Sailor' by The Beach Boys
26. 'In the Navy' by Village People
27. 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Simon & Garfunkel
28. 'The House of the Rising Sun' by The Animals
29. 'Into the Mystic' by Van Morrison
30. 'The Old Man and the Sea' by The Who
Songs About The Water and Fishing #31 to 40
31. 'The Fish' by Yes
32. 'Down by the River' by Neil Young
33. 'Watching the River Flow' by Bob Dylan
34. 'The River Song' by Dennis Wilson
35. 'Sail' by AWOLNATION
36. 'The Sailor Song' by Billy Talent
37. 'Oceans' by Pearl Jam
38. 'The Water' by The Head and the Heart
39. 'The Sea' by Morcheeba
40. 'Sea Legs' by The Shins
Songs for Fishing #41 to 50
41. 'Boat on the River' by Styx
42. 'River of Deceit' by Mad Season
43. 'The River' by Live
44. 'The Ship Song' by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
45. 'Fisherman' by Casey Ashley
46. 'Last Salmon Man' by Primus
47. 'A Trout' by The Warlocks
48. 'The Old Diamondback Sturgeon' by Primus
49. 'Bait a Hook' by Justin Moore
50. 'I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)' by Brad Paisley
© 2025 Carson McQueen
