Idaho used to open on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and now mostly does not. The general rule is year-round, and that Saturday survives as the hinge on which the special rule waters turn.
Every season we have verified in Idaho
2 rules for 2 species, as IDFG publishes them. The band under each heading is the legal season; the row under it is our own monthly activity curve.
Trout β General season, all waters
The general rule is "Open All Year, except as modified in the Special Rule Waters". The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend is still everywhere in the book, but as a transition rather than an opening: restrictions that apply from December 1 to the Friday before that weekend give way to a different set from that Saturday through November 30. Warm River, for instance, changes from catch-and-release to a six-trout limit on exactly that day.
- Limit
- 6 trout a day, all species combined, with brook trout allowing 10 more on top.
Salmon β Chinook and steelhead seasons
No date to look up. Set each year by the Fish and Game Commission against run forecasts, and closed in-season when the share is caught.
Idahoβs salmon and steelhead fisheries depend on fish that have to climb eight dams to get there, and the seasons are set against the run size each year rather than fixed. They open, close and reopen inside a single season. Any date you read for Idaho salmon that is more than a few weeks old should be checked before you drive.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Idaho fishing seasons and rules, the designated publisher for IDFG. Legal dates were read on the agencyβs 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 11 of 26 Idaho waters we track on a trout river profile, and it is why an opening date and a fishable date are not the same thing. On that curve the water is below 50 F in January, February, March, April, October, November, December and at 70 F or more in no month; it is an estimate for the water type, not a reading.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 26 Idaho waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Clearwater River β Nez Perce County
- Henrys Fork β Madison County
- Lake Pend Oreille β Bonner County
- Snake River (South Fork) β Bonneville County
- Boise River β Ada County
- Silver Creek β Blaine County
- Henrys Lake β Fremont County
- South Fork Boise River β Elmore County
- Blackfoot Reservoir β Caribou County
- South Fork Clearwater River β Idaho County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Idaho requires a licence from age 14, and residents pay from $35.50 against $118.00 for visitors. What a Idaho licence costs and where to buy it β
Questions
When does fishing season open in Idaho?
It depends on the species: trout open all year; salmon set each year by the agency. Every date on this page was read off IDFG on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Idaho?
Yes. Idaho requires a fishing licence from age 14, from $35.50 for residents.
Are these Idaho 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.