A record 1.5 million angling licences were sold last year, according to the Britain's Environment Agency.
The agency said the centuries-old sport had seen a major resurgence over the past decade, with almost half a million more licences to fish during last year than in 2000.
The EA puts the rise in popularity of angling down to cleaner rivers with more fish, better fishing opportunities, free guides - and the credit crunch.
With a year's coarse fishing rod licence costing £26, the agency's head of fisheries Mat Crocker said the sport was becoming more popular as a "cheap and cheerful" pastime.
Licence sales generated more than £23 million in revenues for the Environment Agency last year.
A 12 per cent rise in the number of licences sold this year compared to 2008 should bring in an extra £3 million - which will be reinvested in improving fisheries.
The Environment Agency said it had plans to revitalise 9,000 miles of river by 2015, creating new fisheries and fish passes to help fish navigate locks and weirs.
The agency will also be putting more than 350,000 farm-reared fish into rivers each year, to boost angling and restock waterways which have been hit by pollution incidents.
Mr Crocker said: "Though there's still much to do, more and more of our rivers are now supporting healthy fish populations.
"The result is that major coarse fishing rivers such as the Severn, Thames and lower Trent have been providing consistently good fishing.
"There are now salmon in all of the rivers of the south Wales coalfield that once ran black with coal and this year we have tracked one salmon to the top of the Rhondda thanks to a huge turnaround in water quality and works to help fish swim further upstream."
The Environment Agency said once-polluted rivers such as the Wandle, Taff, Mersey, Don and Irwell and Birmingham's canals were now supporting healthy fish populations.
And Mr Crocker said: "As well as this boost to fish stocks, we have also distributed over a million free angling guides this year to make it easier to find a local fishing spot, and, with the recession biting, angling is becoming increasingly popular as a cheap and cheerful pastime."