North Dakota opens with a sentence that settles the question: "ALL WATERS of the state are open to fishing year-round except below." What follows the "except" is short.
Every season we have verified in North Dakota
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.
Walleye — Statewide
Open all year, which in a state where the lakes freeze hard means the season is really defined by the ice rather than the regulation. Sakakawea and Devils Lake carry the bulk of the effort and both fish through the winter.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession.
Northern pike — Statewide
Same limit as walleye and no closed season. Pike here is also a legal species for dark house spearing and bow fishing on named waters, which is a method season rather than a species one.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession.
Bass — Statewide
Trout runs to three a day, perch to twenty and salmon to five. The paddlefish snagging season is the one real exception on the calendar: legal from May 1 to May 21, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central, and the department closes it early to further harvest when the quota is reached, as it did on May 8 in 2026.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession for largemouth and smallmouth combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official North Dakota fishing guide, the designated publisher for ND Game and Fish. 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 11 of 14 North Dakota waters we track on a prairie walleye 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 North Dakota waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Devils Lake — Ramsey County
- Lake Sakakawea — Dunn County
- Lake Ashtabula — Barnes County
- Lake Tschida — Grant County
- Lake Audubon — McLean County
- Lake Metigoshe — Bottineau County
- Missouri River — Burleigh County
- Lake Darling — Ward County
- Jamestown Reservoir — Stutsman County
- Sheyenne River — Cass County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. North Dakota requires a licence from age 16, and residents pay from $29.00 against $73.00 for visitors. What a North Dakota licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in North Dakota?
It depends on the species: walleye open all year; northern pike open all year; bass open all year. Every date on this page was read off ND Game and Fish on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in North Dakota?
Yes. North Dakota requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $29.00 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 North Dakota 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.