Michigan does the same thing New York does and adds a twist: the best smallmouth water in the state opens four weeks after everywhere else.
The dates
Open today by the rules below, worked out for 2026 rather than copied from a chart.
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. 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.
Why Michigan is different
Catch-and-immediate-release for largemouth and smallmouth is open all year on nearly every water in Michigan. The possession season opens the Saturday before Memorial Day statewide — May 23 in 2026 — except on Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River and the Detroit River, which wait until the third Saturday in June. That system carries some of the finest smallmouth fishing in North America and gets hammered, which is why it is held back.
What to actually do
Both openers are written as weekdays, so both move: May 23 and June 20 in 2026, May 24 and June 21 in 2025. If you are driving to St. Clair for the opener, it is not the same weekend as the rest of the state, and that is the single most common mistake with this rule.
The activity row in the calendar above is our own monthly curve for this species, and it is there to answer the question the dates cannot: whether the fish will be feeding when the season lets you fish. How largemouth bass behave through the year is a separate page, about the fish rather than the paperwork.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 27 Michigan waters, each with live flow or tide.
- Lake St. Clair — Wayne County
- Manistee River — Manistee County
- Pere Marquette River — Mason County
- Grand River — Kent County
- Muskegon River — Newaygo County
- Detroit River — Wayne County
- Lake Gogebic — Gogebic County
- St. Clair River — St. Clair County
An open season is not permission to fish: Michigan requires a licence from age 17, from $26.00 for residents. What it costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does bass season open in Michigan?
The possession season opens the Saturday before Memorial Day statewide — May 23 in 2026 — and the third Saturday in June on Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. Both run to December 31.
Can I fish for bass in Michigan before the season opens?
Yes. Catch-and-immediate-release is open all year on nearly all waters. What the date controls is when you may keep one.
Checked by Pablo Ruiz Quintero. Dates move: tell us if this one has and the correction goes in the verification log with the date.