Colorado answers the season question in one sentence and then spends thirty pages on the exceptions. The default is that the water is open, all day and all night, every day of the year.
Every season we have verified in Colorado
One block per rule, because a single species can be on two calendars in the same state depending on the water. The band under each heading is the legal season; the row under it is what our own data says the fish are doing.
Trout — Statewide default
The brochure states it plainly: "Colorado waters are open to taking fish, amphibians and crustaceans day and night, year round, except if otherwise stated in the regulation section of this brochure." Night fishing being explicitly legal is unusual and worth knowing. The exceptions are water by water rather than statewide, so the rule that governs your day is posted at the water, not on a calendar.
- Limit
- 4 trout a day, 8 in possession.
Bass — 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. Legal dates were read on the agency’s own page on the date shown beside each entry. Seasons change: the agency link is always the last word.
What the water is doing while the season is open
This is the part an agency page will not tell you. The temperature row above is the seasonal curve we use for the 17 of 37 Colorado waters we track on a trout river profile, and it is why an opening date and a fishable date are not the same thing. A season that opens while the water is still in the forties is a legal invitation, not a biological one: the fish are there, they are just not eating on your schedule yet. Cross the legal band against the activity row before you book the day off.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 37 Colorado waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Eagle River — Eagle County
- Blue Mesa Reservoir — Gunnison County
- South Platte River (Deckers) — County
- Blue River (Silverthorne) — Grand County
- Antero Reservoir — Park County
- Pueblo Reservoir — Pueblo County
- Aurora Reservoir — Arapahoe County
- Gunnison River — Mesa County
- Taylor River — Gunnison County
- Big Thompson River — Weld County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Colorado requires a licence from age 16, and residents pay from $57.63 against $136.77 for visitors. What a Colorado licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in Colorado?
It depends on the species: trout open all year; bass open all year. Every date on this page was read off CPW on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Colorado?
Yes. Colorado requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $57.63 for residents. A season being open is not permission to fish: the licence is separate and so are the size and bag limits.
Are these Colorado dates going to change?
Some of them, and the page says which. Dates written as a rule in the regulations are calculated here for 2026, so they follow the rule rather than going stale. Dates the agency sets each year are shown as exactly that, with no calendar band, because inventing one would be worse than leaving it empty.