Connecticut’s season searches are almost entirely marine, and almost entirely about one fish: blackfish. Its season is three separate windows with a different limit in each, which is the sort of thing worth having in front of you rather than in your head.
Every season we have verified in Connecticut
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.
Tautog — Marine waters
Blackfish, and the answer people are actually looking for. Three windows: a month in spring at two fish, two months in high summer at two fish, and the autumn run from October 10 to November 28 at three. The rest of the year it is closed outright.
- Size
- 16 inches.
Blackfish Season in Connecticut: the full rules, the sizes and why this state is different →
Black sea bass — Marine waters
Both the size and the limit changed for 2026. Party and charter vessels run a longer season to December 31 with six fish a day from September, so the boat you are on changes the rules you are under.
- Size
- 15.5 inches.
- Limit
- 4 a day.
Summer flounder — Marine waters
One continuous season with the minimum length stepping up half an inch on August 2. A 19-inch fluke is a keeper on August 1 and a release on August 2.
- Limit
- 3 a day.
Striped bass — Marine waters
No closed season, a narrow slot, and an inline circle hook is required when fishing with bait. The hook rule does not apply to artificial lures, which is the exception most often got wrong.
- Size
- 1 fish, at least 28 inches and under 31.
- Limit
- 1 a day.
Scup — Marine waters
Shore anglers get a smaller minimum than boat anglers, which is unusual and deliberate: it keeps the fishery reachable without a boat.
- Size
- 11 inches from a boat, 9.5 inches from shore.
- Limit
- 30 a day.
Bluefish — Marine waters
Open all year with no size limit. The 2026 regulations changed bluefish and black sea bass and left everything else as it was.
- Size
- No minimum.
- Limit
- 5 a day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. 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 4 of 14 Connecticut waters we track on a northern lake 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 14 Connecticut waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Candlewood Lake — Fairfield County
- Housatonic River — Litchfield County
- Farmington River — Hartford County
- Bantam Lake — Litchfield County
- Lake Waramaug — Litchfield County
- Mansfield Hollow Lake — Tolland County
- Saugatuck Reservoir — Fairfield County
- Gardner Lake — New London County
- Highland Lake — Litchfield County
- Naugatuck River — Litchfield County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Connecticut requires a licence from age 16, and residents pay from $28.00 against $55.00 for visitors. What a Connecticut licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in Connecticut?
It depends on the species: tautog april 1–april 30, july 1–august 31, october 10–november 28; black sea bass may 16 to november 25; summer flounder may 4–august 1, august 2–october 15. Every date on this page was read off CT DEEP on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Connecticut?
Yes. Connecticut requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $28.00 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 Connecticut 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.