Indiana answers the season question in a way that surprises people: for most of what you would want to catch, there is no closed season at all. The rules that govern your day are sizes and bag limits, and the one real opener is on trout streams.
Every season we have verified in Indiana
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 — Inland streams
The opener is 6 a.m. on the last Saturday in April and runs to December 31. Inland lakes have no closed season for trout at all, so the same fish is on two different calendars depending on whether it is swimming in moving water.
- Size
- 7 inches on inland waters other than Lake Michigan and its tributaries.
- Limit
- 5 per day.
Bass — 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.
Walleye — Statewide
No closed season, but the minimum size changes when you cross State Road 26. That line, not a date, is the Indiana walleye rule worth remembering.
- Size
- 14 inches south of State Road 26, 16 inches north of it, with named exceptions at Bass Lake, Wolf Lake and Lake George.
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. 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 7 of 15 Indiana waters we track on a southern reservoir 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 15 Indiana waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Lake Monroe — Monroe County
- Patoka Lake — Orange County
- Brookville Lake — Franklin County
- Lake Wawasee — Kosciusko County
- Tippecanoe River — Pulaski County
- Geist Reservoir — Hamilton County
- Salamonie Lake — Huntington County
- Mississinewa Lake — Miami County
- Cagles Mill Lake — Owen County
- White River — Marion County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Indiana requires a licence, and residents pay from $23.00 against $60.00 for visitors. What a Indiana licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in Indiana?
It depends on the species: trout april 25 to december 31; bass no closed season published; walleye no closed season published. Every date on this page was read off Indiana DNR on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Indiana?
Yes. Indiana requires a fishing licence, from $23.00 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 Indiana 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.