Pennsylvania runs the biggest opening day in the country and writes almost all of it as a rule rather than a date. The trout opener is the first Saturday in April; the bass closure and the walleye reopening are weekdays too. None of the three is the same date two years running.
Every season we have verified in Pennsylvania
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 — Statewide, regular season
The regulation reads "8 a.m. on the first Saturday in April, to midnight, Labor Day", which is why the date moves: April 5 in 2025, April 4 in 2026. Anglers 16 and over need a trout permit on top of the licence, and that catches people out more often than the date does.
- Size
- 7 inches.
- Limit
- 5 trout a day, all species combined.
Trout Season in Pennsylvania: the full rules, the sizes and why this state is different →
Trout — Statewide, extended season
After Labor Day the season does not end, it changes gear: from September 8, 2026 to February 15, 2027 the water stays open with the daily limit cut from five to three. Most people who put the rod away in September do not know this exists.
- Limit
- 3 trout a day.
Bass — Commonwealth inland waters
Bass is open all year in Pennsylvania — but there is a no-harvest window from 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in April to 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in June. Through it you may fish and must release immediately, and casting into a spawning bed is prohibited outright. The season is about the cooler, not the rod.
Walleye — Commonwealth inland waters
Two windows with a spawning closure between them: January 1 to March 14, then from 12:01 a.m. on the first Saturday in May to December 31. The gap is the walleye spawn, and it is the reason the state has no continuous walleye season.
Walleye Season in Pennsylvania: the full rules, the sizes and why this state is different →
Read on 2026-09-14 from Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. 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 8 of 22 Pennsylvania waters we track on a trout river 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 22 Pennsylvania waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Raystown Lake — Huntingdon County
- Presque Isle Bay — Erie County
- Pymatuning Reservoir — Crawford County
- Spring Creek — Centre County
- Little Juniata River — Huntingdon County
- Walnut Creek — Erie County
- Lake Arthur — Butler County
- Yellow Breeches Creek — Cumberland County
- Lake Wallenpaupack — Wayne County
- Susquehanna River — Lancaster County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Pennsylvania requires a licence from age 16, and residents pay from $27.97 against $60.97 for visitors. What a Pennsylvania licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in Pennsylvania?
It depends on the species: trout april 4 to september 7; trout september 8 to february 15; bass no harvest april 11 to june 13. Every date on this page was read off PFBC on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Pennsylvania?
Yes. Pennsylvania requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $27.97 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 Pennsylvania 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.