Mississippi has some of the most generous freshwater limits in the country and no statewide closed season to go with them. A hundred bream a day is not a misprint.
Every season we have verified in Mississippi
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.
Bass — Statewide
No closed season and no statewide length limit. On waters shared with another state, the limit is whichever of the two is greater, which is an unusual rule and generally works in the angler’s favour. State fishing lakes run their own tighter rules.
- Size
- No statewide minimum.
- Limit
- 10 a day for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted combined.
Bream and panfish — Statewide, bream and panfish
Catfish has no statewide daily limit at all except on the Alabama and Tennessee border waters, where one fish over 34 inches a day is the cap. Striped bass and hybrids are the tightest line in the table at six fish and fifteen inches.
- Limit
- 100 bluegill, bream and other sunfish combined. Crappie 30 a day.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Mississippi fishing regulations, the designated publisher for MDWFP. 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 12 of 14 Mississippi 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 14 Mississippi waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Enid Lake — Yalobusha County
- Sardis Lake — Panola County
- Grenada Lake — Grenada County
- Biloxi — Harrison County
- Ross Barnett Reservoir — Madison County
- Bay Springs Lake — Tishomingo County
- Arkabutla Lake — Tate County
- Pascagoula River — George County
- Okatibbee Lake — Lauderdale County
- Big Black River — Warren County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Check the state agency for the licence you need before you go.
Questions
When does fishing season open in Mississippi?
It depends on the species: bass no closed season published; bream and panfish no closed season published. Every date on this page was read off MDWFP on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Mississippi?
Yes. A Mississippi fishing licence is required, and it is separate from the season: an open season is not permission to fish without one.
Are these Mississippi 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.