I read Spinner1’s post about it almost being fishing season. Do you guys actually have a season for fishing? I mean, is there a time of year that you legally can’t fish? I know with the harsh winters it makes fishing nigh impossible but IF you wanted to, could you?
I live in Texas and everyone knows that winter for us is 3 days of 40 degree weather then it’s back to 80!
Just curious…
s1rGr1nG0,
That is one of the biggest reason I moved from Michigan to Tennessee, because the winters are to long and the summers are to short. There is nothing like standing in the river the middle of January being between 45 to 60 degrees here in Tennessee. Don’t miss those cold, windy, snow blowing days. 
It obviously varies state-by-state, but yes most states have a closed season, mostly to allow for either spawning or stocking.
Traditionally (meaning years ago) most states with trout only allowed (trout) fishing from sometime in April to about Labor Day (or even earlier in some states.)
The trend has been for the closed season to be shorter and shorter. Here in Maryland, stocked streams are closed for either one or three weeks prior to “opening day.” In Pennsylvania, the trout streams are closed March 1 through mid-April. I believe New York has a more traditional closed season, October or so through April 1.
There are plenty of exceptions to closures; catch-and-release streams are usually open all year, for example.
Bass are regulated slightly differently (at least in MD), you can fish for them, but can’t keep them Mar 1 - June 15.
So the answer to your question is yes and no. (Or is that no and yes?) There’s always someplace you can fish for something, but it won’t be every body of water for every species.
Yes, we really do have seasons in some states for some, not all, species. Mainly these seasons protect spawning fish from the meat fishermen who think fish appear in the rivers my magic, and that every fish should be kept regardless if it’s full of eggs or not, or if it’s 6" long or 27" long. That may sound like I’m stereotyping some people, and you would be absolutely correct. Without seasons and slot lengths, fish in some waters would be fished to where there would be none left to reproduce. Even with seasons and slot limits, we are still plagued with poachers.
Same thing in Quebec. In BC, there’s open season most of the year (I think).
Here, trout (brookies and most other species) is mid april 'till early september 
Salmon in Quebec is 1 June to mid September on most rivers. (I believe that Gaspe is longer)
We have it in NY, too. Trout season is April 1 to October 15. Fortunately, there’s a number of trout streams that are open for C&R, during the closed portion of the season. Our trib fishing for steelhead is year round.
Most other game species also have a “season”.
Ontario mostly is Last saturday in April to last day in sept. Some area’s have extended seasons until end of dec, which are very few. then even fewer open all year.
A lot browns and brookie waters are c&r.
Mike
In Montana the small streams (most of them) close around December 1st. For the most part the rivers are open year round. We always get a Jan and or Feb thaw and when this happens the fishing can be very good. The Big Horn, like most tail waters, fishes very well all winter. We have already had some incredible days on the Horn and Yellowstone.
For the next week or so we are back into winter mode. This is good because this is the time of winter that we get a good percentage of our snow pack.
I will wade in on this one!!!
We have a season here in SWAB - South West Alberta…
Starts Mar31
But we have open water all year… you can Fly fish all year long on certain waters… Some Pics of my fav…
on the way to …
find the wolf…
Ohio has closed seasons for keeping some species, but even when cold there is fishing. The steelhead was caught Sunday high 20 degrees but flowing water, the perch was caught icefishing today high of 50 degrees. Wish I could have switched those temps around but that’s the breaks.
Maybe the last day of icefishing this season… I hope.
Flyfishfairwx, When I see pictures like that I am speechless. Absolutely gorgeous! It’s hard to believe that some people are actually lucky enough to live in areas like that!
Also, Tigfly, nice fish! What kind of perch is that?
What kind of perch is that?
A real one . . . unlike all the sunfish wrongly called “perch.” It’s a yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and in the same family with walleye (the largest perch) and sauger. Yellow perch are often prolific, delicious, and they’ll take flies.
Tigfly’s there looks fat and sassy. Not all of them are jumbos.
In Newfoundland the Trout season starts Feb 1st and runs until Oct 7th. With a closure from April 15th thru May15th, select waters remain open during this month for brown trout, all other must be released. Also after the first week of Sept the same select waters plus some schedule salmon river remain open for brown & rainbow trout. Schedule rainbow waters opening June 1 and run thru Oct 7th…at least I think I got that straight…
Salmon runs from June 1 thru first week in Sept.
In Keystone trout season is closed from March 1st till the opening day in mid April. You also have regular season - spring summer early fall and extended season the rest of the year with different creel limits. But there are waters with special regulations so that if you really want you can fish all year… if the weather permits it.
From the opening day of trout season until mid June there is no kill period for bass to protect spawning time. You can fish but all bass must be released immediately unharmed and no tunreys are allowed .
Other fish also has some regulations but I will not go into detail here. If interested got to http://www.fishandboat.com.
Spinner1, the scourge of Richaland Center, WI, is talking about trout seasons. Kind of a triple tiered thing here in Cheeseland, Streams running into the Great Lakes have a year round season up to the first dam.
The other waters in the state have an early catch and release season from teh first Saturday in March until the last Saturday in April. The season is then closed for one week, with the general cath and take season running from the first Saturday in May to the 30 of September.
To confuse you even further, there is a county by county listing of waters with special trout regs, in some cases more restrictive and in some cases specifying inland waters that are open year round. Also, there are 4 different categories the trout streams fall into with differing size and catch limits.
After that it gets confusing.
Many inland, non-trout rivers are open season year round, except for muskellunge, while most lakes have a season on gamefish from the first Saturday of May until March 31st. Panfish, however, is usually open year round except as listed in the county by county special regulations.
Simple, huh? Just check the regs before you go and put your lawyer on standby.
BTW, Spinner1 is a friend of mine even though we live across the state from each other.
Yes, here in North Western Ontario our trout season is from the last saturday in April until Labour day, (first weekend in September).
You Cannot fly fish here during the winter if there was an open season, not even in the fastest of rivers, everything is frozen solid, as it is still today (but finally warming a little).
The Thunder Bay area receives mountain climbers from all over the continent during mid winter to ice climb, straight up a water falls!! I’ll wait until summer before getting that close to the rivers…lol.
-Grant
In Rhode Island the season is 6:00 AM the 2nd saturday of April until midnight of the last day of Feb. The daily creel limit also changes in the fall but since I usually C&R I don’t remember the day.
Thanks for the photos Guys…
@ Qg.