The most misread season in American fishing. In most states with a bass season you can fish for bass all year: what closes is your right to keep one. Confusing the two costs people trips they could have taken.
State by state
Each block is one rule as the agency writes it, with the calendar band underneath. Where a state runs the same species on two different calendars — inshore against offshore, one peninsula against the other — both are here, because that is exactly the distinction people get wrong.
Michigan Michigan DNR
Statewide, except Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers
This is a possession season, not a fishing season. Catch-and-immediate-release for largemouth and smallmouth is open all year on nearly every water in the state, so the date below is the day you may start keeping one — not the day you may start casting.
Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River and the Detroit River
The best smallmouth water in the state opens about four weeks after everywhere else, to protect a fishery that gets hit hard. Catch-and-release stays open all year here too.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Indiana Indiana DNR
Statewide
Indiana does not close a general bass season. What varies is the size structure: several lakes run slot limits where fish in a protected band must go back, so the rule that matters is the one posted for the water you are on, not a date.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Indiana fishing guide, the designated publisher for Indiana DNR.
New York NYSDEC
Statewide
From December 1 to June 14 black bass are catch-and-release with artificial lures across most of the state, so the water is open eleven and a half months and the cooler is open five and a half. Some waters carry their own dates on top of this.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 5 per day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Pennsylvania PFBC
Commonwealth inland waters
Bass is open all year in Pennsylvania — but there is a no-harvest window from 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in April to 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in June. Through it you may fish and must release immediately, and casting into a spawning bed is prohibited outright. The season is about the cooler, not the rod.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
New Jersey NJ Fish and Wildlife
Statewide
From April 15 to June 15 bass is catch-and-release statewide. Either side of that you may keep five. Named Lunker Bass Lakes carry bigger minimums and smaller limits on top.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 5 a day, combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Minnesota Minnesota DNR
Statewide
The statute says plainly that for largemouth and smallmouth bass "the open season is continuous". Catch-and-release for bass now runs every part of the calendar year, so in Minnesota the bass question is about size and limits, never about dates.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The DNR website blocks automated access, so these dates are read from Minnesota Statutes 97C.395, which is the law that sets them — a stronger source than the summary page, and the reason the opener can be calculated years ahead.
Wisconsin Wisconsin DNR
Smallmouth, northern zone
Harvest of northern-zone smallmouth does not open until the third Saturday in June: catch-and-release only for the seven weeks the rest of the state is keeping fish. Southern-zone smallmouth and largemouth statewide follow the general opener.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Maine MDIFW
Statewide
An unusual split: the north has no bass bag limit at all in lakes and ponds under the general law, while the south is capped at two. Bass are not native here, and the limits say so.
- Limit
- Unlimited in North Zone lakes and ponds; 2 fish in the South Zone.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Vermont Vermont Fish and Wildlife
Statewide
Harvest opens the second Saturday in June and runs to March 15. Outside that window catch-and-release with artificial lures and flies is permitted all year, so the closed months are about the cooler again rather than the cast.
- Size
- 10 inches.
- Limit
- 5 combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Vermont fishing guide, the designated publisher for Vermont Fish and Wildlife.
New Hampshire NH Fish and Game
Lakes and ponds
Two fish a day until May 14, catch-and-release only from May 15 to June 15 over the spawn, then five fish a day to the end of the year. The closed month is the one to know; the two-fish winter limit is the one people break.
Read on 2026-09-14 from New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official New Hampshire freshwater fishing digest, the designated publisher for NH Fish and Game.
Colorado CPW
Statewide default
No closed season under the statewide default. Walleye and saugeye run to five a day as well, and northern pike has no limit at all — Colorado treats pike as a species to remove rather than conserve in most waters.
- Limit
- 5 a day for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Colorado fishing brochure, the designated publisher for CPW.
Ohio ODNR
Inland waters, statewide
The statewide table publishes a limit and a size and no dates, and it applies to "all public waters in Ohio where site-specific regulations are not implemented". Lake Erie, the Ohio River and named waters run their own rules on top, and on Lake Erie bass does have a season with a one-fish, eighteen-inch window over the spawn.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 5 in any combination of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Ohio fishing regulations, the designated publisher for ODNR.
Missouri MDC
Ozark streams
Black bass in the Ozark streams runs from the Saturday before Memorial Day to the end of February — May 23, 2026 to February 28, 2027. Outside the Ozarks the season is continuous with a twelve-inch minimum, so the same fish in the same state is on two calendars depending on which side of a line you are standing.
- Limit
- 6 a day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Missouri Department of Conservation.
Tennessee TWRA
Statewide
No statewide closed season and no statewide minimum length. What changes the day is the water: many reservoirs and rivers carry their own slot limits and creel exceptions, and the statewide table is explicitly a default rather than the whole rule.
- Limit
- No more than 5 black bass a day in any combination.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Kentucky KDFWR
Statewide
No closed season statewide. Named lakes run their own slot limits on top, and the special regulations section is where the rule that governs your day usually lives.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 6 a day, 12 in possession.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Kentucky fishing and boating guide, the designated publisher for KDFWR.
Mississippi MDWFP
Statewide
No closed season and no statewide length limit. On waters shared with another state, the limit is whichever of the two is greater, which is an unusual rule and generally works in the angler’s favour. State fishing lakes run their own tighter rules.
- Size
- No statewide minimum.
- Limit
- 10 a day for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Mississippi fishing regulations, the designated publisher for MDWFP.
Arkansas AGFC
Statewide
A ten-fish black bass limit is among the most generous anywhere, but smallmouth is separately capped at four and carries the only statewide length limit in the group. The Ozark Zone raises that to twelve inches.
- Size
- Smallmouth 10 inches, or 12 inches in the Ozark Zone.
- Limit
- 10 black bass a day combined; smallmouth capped at 4 of those.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Oklahoma ODWC
Statewide
The one-over-sixteen rule is the interesting part: you may keep six, but only one of them can be a good one. Spotted bass has no limit at all, which is a deliberate nudge to remove them from waters where they compete with largemouth.
- Size
- Only one over 16 inches in the daily bag.
- Limit
- 6 largemouth and smallmouth combined. Spotted bass unlimited.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Oklahoma fishing regulations, the designated publisher for ODWC.
Kansas KDWP
Statewide
No statewide closed season. Individual reservoirs run their own slot limits, and several of the best bass waters in the state are managed tighter than the statewide default.
- Size
- 15 inches.
- Limit
- 5 a day for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Kansas fishing regulations summary, the designated publisher for KDWP.
Iowa Iowa DNR
Statewide
Continuous season, but three different minimum lengths depending on what kind of water you are in. A three-fish limit is tight for the Midwest and it is deliberate: Iowa manages for size rather than numbers.
- Size
- 15 inches in public lakes, 12 inches in interior streams and the Missouri River, 14 inches on the Mississippi.
- Limit
- 3 a day, 6 in possession on inland waters.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Iowa fishing regulations, the designated publisher for Iowa DNR.
Nebraska Nebraska Game and Parks
Statewide, hook and line
The season table lists hook and line as "Year-round" and then spends its length on everything else. The one rule that does bite statewide is the trophy cap: however many bass you keep, only one may be twenty-one inches or longer.
- Size
- Only one black bass 21 inches or longer a day, from any water.
- Limit
- 5 a day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Nebraska fishing guide, the designated publisher for Nebraska Game and Parks.
North Dakota ND Game and Fish
Statewide
Trout runs to three a day, perch to twenty and salmon to five. The paddlefish snagging season is the one real exception on the calendar: legal from May 1 to May 21, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central, and the department closes it early to further harvest when the quota is reached, as it did on May 8 in 2026.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession for largemouth and smallmouth combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official North Dakota fishing guide, the designated publisher for ND Game and Fish.
South Dakota SD GFP
Statewide
Trout and salmon run to five combined, perch to fifteen and catfish to ten with only one flathead over thirty inches. Sturgeon is closed for all species, with a narrow catch-and-release window for lake sturgeon on Big Stone Lake.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession for largemouth and smallmouth combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official South Dakota fishing handbook, the designated publisher for SD GFP.
Wyoming WGFD
Statewide default
The same year-round default applies. Nongame fish have no creel or possession limit at all. Before fishing, the thing to look up is not the season but the area: the statewide rule is a starting point that the area regulations routinely override.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Wyoming fishing regulations, the designated publisher for WGFD.
Nevada NDOW
Statewide default
Nevada sorts its fish into coldwater and warmwater groups and then sets a combined limit for each, which is a different structure from the species-by-species tables most states use. One rule catches visitors out: game fish may not be transported alive from the water they came out of, so the fish has to be killed before it leaves.
- Limit
- 15 warmwater game fish a day in the Western Region, of which no more than 5 black bass and 5 striped bass.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Nevada Department of Wildlife. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Nevada fishing regulations, the designated publisher for NDOW.
Arizona AZGFD
Statewide default
No statewide closed season. Walleye is also six, catfish ten, and crappie has no limit at all. Northern pike is unlimited with a requirement to kill or release immediately, which tells you how Arizona feels about pike in its reservoirs.
- Limit
- 6 largemouth and smallmouth in any combination.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Arizona Game and Fish Department. AZGFD publishes its regulations through eRegulations and its own site blocks automated access, so this is the eRegulations edition of the official Arizona fishing regulations.
Delaware DNREC
Non-tidal waters
Largemouth bass runs all year. Crappie and the other panfish are also open all year at fifty a day with no more than twenty-five of any one species, which is generous for a state this size.
- Size
- 12 inches, except 15 inches in Becks Pond.
- Limit
- 6 a day, except 2 from Becks Pond.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Delaware fishing guide, the designated publisher for DNREC.
Rhode Island RI DEM
Statewide
Largemouth and smallmouth carry no closed season at all, which makes them the species to fish in March when the trout season is shut. Felt-soled waders and any footwear with porous soles are banned in every freshwater in the state, which is a rule people arrive not knowing.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 5 a day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Rhode Island freshwater fishing guide, the designated publisher for RI DEM.
West Virginia WVDNR
Statewide
No closed season. The New and the Greenbrier are among the best smallmouth rivers in the east and carry their own special regulations, so the statewide six-fish default is rarely the rule that applies where you actually want to fish.
- Size
- No statewide minimum.
- Limit
- 6 a day in any combination of smallmouth, largemouth and spotted.
Read on 2026-09-14 from West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official West Virginia fishing regulations summary, the designated publisher for WVDNR.
Massachusetts MassWildlife / DMF
Statewide freshwater
Open all year with no catch-and-release period, which is unusual for New England: Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey all shut the cooler over the spawn and Massachusetts does not. Chain pickerel is five at fifteen inches, northern pike and tiger muskellunge one each at twenty-eight, all of them open every day of the year.
- Size
- 12 inches.
- Limit
- 5 a day for largemouth and smallmouth combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from MassWildlife and the Division of Marine Fisheries. Freshwater from the MassWildlife regulations page; saltwater from the Division of Marine Fisheries table, which DMF describes as an unofficial copy of 322 CMR and last updated April 28, 2026.
How to read these dates
A season date is one of four things, and confusing them is how people end up on the water on the wrong day. Some are fixed and will be the same next year. Some are written as a rule — a weekday rather than a date — and we calculate those for 2026 from the regulation instead of copying a figure that goes stale. Some do not exist until the agency announces them, and no amount of searching will produce next season's date early. And some states simply do not close a season for this species, managing it with sizes and limits instead.
On this page 15 of the rules fall into the last two groups, and their calendar band is left empty on purpose. An empty band means nobody has published a date, which is different from the season being shut — and a page that paints both the same colour is telling you something it does not know.
The fish itself
The headline act on most American reservoirs. Relates to cover: docks, brush, grass edges and points. The activity row in each calendar above comes from our own monthly curve for this species, which is what makes the legal band useful: an opening day in cold water and an opening day in a feeding window are not the same trip. The full treatment — where they hold, what they eat and how to fish for them through the year — is on the largemouth bass page, which is about the fish rather than the paperwork.
Questions
When is bass season?
It depends entirely on the state: Michigan is may 23 to december 31, Indiana is no closed season published, New York is june 15 to november 30. There is no national bass season, and the dates below are the ones each agency publishes.
Can I keep bass outside the season?
No. Where a season is closed, harvest is closed, and in several states the water stays open for catch-and-release. Sizes and bag limits apply on top of the season and are listed per state above.
Why does this page not give a date for every state?
Because 15 of the rules listed here are not published as dates at all. The agency either sets them each year or regulates the fishery with sizes and limits instead of a calendar. Publishing a made-up window for those would be the easiest thing on this page and the most dishonest.
Compiled and checked by Pablo Ruiz Quintero. Dates move: tell us if one has and it goes in the verification log.