South Dakota manages with limits rather than dates for everything anglers actually chase, and saves its closures for the two species that cannot take the pressure: sturgeon and muskellunge.
Every season we have verified in South 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
The one-over-twenty rule is the whole South Dakota walleye philosophy in a line: keep a feed of eating fish, put the breeders back. Several lakes run their own length rules on top, and the handbook lists them water by water.
- Size
- Only one 20 inches or longer in the daily bag.
- Limit
- 4 a day, 8 in possession.
Northern pike — Statewide
One of the most generous pike limits anywhere and no closed season. Muskellunge and tiger muskie, by contrast, are catch and release only statewide.
- Limit
- 6 a day, 12 in possession.
Bass — Statewide
Trout and salmon run to five combined, perch to fifteen and catfish to ten with only one flathead over thirty inches. Sturgeon is closed for all species, with a narrow catch-and-release window for lake sturgeon on Big Stone Lake.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession for largemouth and smallmouth combined.
Read on 2026-09-14 from South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official South Dakota fishing handbook, the designated publisher for SD GFP. 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 10 of 13 South 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 13 South Dakota waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Lake Oahe — Hughes County
- Waubay Lake — Day County
- Lake Thompson — Kingsbury County
- Bitter Lake — Day County
- Lake Francis Case — Brule County
- Lake Sharpe — Lyman County
- Angostura Reservoir — Fall River County
- Lewis and Clark Lake — Yankton County
- Pactola Reservoir — Pennington County
- Belle Fourche Reservoir — Butte County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. South Dakota requires a licence from age 16, and residents pay from $41.00 against $105.00 for visitors. What a South Dakota licence costs and where to buy it →
Questions
When does fishing season open in South Dakota?
It depends on the species: walleye no closed season published; northern pike no closed season published; bass no closed season published. Every date on this page was read off SD GFP on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in South Dakota?
Yes. South Dakota requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $41.00 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 South 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.