Great Lakes Fishing Report: November 2026 to February 2027
This is the November 2026 to February 2027 edition at its permanent link. See the current Great Lakes report.
No single day stands out in these 14 days
Our engine puts the best day on 8 different dates across the 30 waters we grade in this region, and the most popular one, November 8, 2026, takes only 11 of them. That is worth knowing in itself: when one day wins almost everywhere it is a weather pattern crossing the whole region, and these 14 days have no such pattern. So pick the day for the water you are actually fishing, named on its own state page below, rather than one date for the whole region.
This is a forecast, so it is the first thing on this page to go out of date. Generated November 3, 2026.
The ice season starts in the far north and works south, and every state runs it on different dates
The Great Lakes winter is an ice season, and it starts in the far north. First ice usually forms on the small northern lakes in late November or December and works south into January, and the big walleye lakes freeze weeks after the small ones and carry the heaviest traffic once they do. None of the three states measures the ice for anglers, and all three say no ice is ever certain to be safe, so the bait shops, resorts and clubs named in each state's section are where the current word on the ice comes from.
Several seasons turn inside the quarter. Minnesota's dark-house spearing opens on November 15 and its musky close at the end of the month, Michigan's through-ice spearing of pike and musky opens on December 1, and Wisconsin's musky close on December 31 and, new this season, may not be fished for through the ice at all. Minnesota's winter lake trout lakes open in mid-January. February brings the sturgeon: Black Lake in Michigan on its first Saturday, by registration and quota, and Lake Winnebago on its second.
Each state's rules are below under the same headings as every region, written for someone fishing it for the first time: the license, bait and gear, the inland limits, ice, and Lake Superior and Lake Michigan where they apply. Mille Lacs and Upper Red Lake set their winter walleye rules after the fall netting, so read the DNR's announcement before fishing either one.
The last Sunday in February ends Minnesota's season while Wisconsin and Michigan keep fishing
Minnesota closes its inland walleye, sauger, northern pike and largemouth harvest and its dark-house spearing at the end of the last Sunday in February, and every Minnesota license expires the same day, because its license year starts on March 1. Wisconsin's walleye, pike and bass stay open until the first Sunday in March, and its licenses run to March 31; Michigan keeps walleye and pike open until March 15 inland and all year on the Lower Peninsula's Great Lakes waters. So a late-February weekend in Minnesota is the end of a season, and one that runs into March needs next year's license, while the same weekend in Wisconsin or Michigan is the middle of one.
Dates that change what you may keep
6 of these 12 change a season, a bag limit or a legal method. Every day of the week below was checked against a calendar.
| When | What changes | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sun November 15 | Minnesota's dark-house spearing opens for northern pike, catfish, whitefish and cisco, and Upper Red Lake's walleye limit drops to four, only one over 17 inches. | MN |
| Mon November 30 | Last day of Minnesota's musky and flathead catfish seasons. Mille Lacs's open-water walleye rule and its five-perch limit run through today. | MN |
| Tue December 1 | Michigan's through-ice spearing of northern pike and musky opens, and Lake St. Clair yellow perch may be speared. In Minnesota, Lake Superior lake trout reopen, three a day. | MI, MN |
| Thu December 31 | Wisconsin's musky season closes, and it is open water only. Michigan's bass possession season ends, though catch and release goes on, and musky possession ends on the St. Clair system. | WI, MI |
| Fri January 1 | Minnesota's southeast trout streams open for catch and release, and the lake trout and stream-trout lakes lying entirely inside the Boundary Waters open. | MN |
| Sat January 2 | Wisconsin's inland trout streams open at 5 a.m. for catch and release; keeping trout waits for the spring opener. | WI |
| Sat January 16 | Minnesota's winter lake trout and stream-trout lakes outside the Boundary Waters open, and Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend runs to Monday, January 18. Wisconsin's free fishing weekend is Saturday and Sunday, with no license needed. | MN, WI |
| Sat February 6 | Black Lake's sturgeon spearing season opens under the standing rule, for registered spearers only, until Monday or until the year's quota is taken, which can happen in the first hour. The DNR posts this year's conditions by January 15. | MI |
| Sat February 13 | Lake Winnebago's sturgeon spearing season opens, for 16 days at most. Michigan's winter Free Fishing Weekend is Saturday and Sunday, with every license fee waived. | WI, MI |
| Sat February 20 | Shelters off the Minnesota and Iowa border waters. | MN |
| Sun February 21 | Shanties off Lake St. Clair before sundown. | MI |
| Sun February 28 | Last day of Minnesota's inland walleye, sauger, northern pike and largemouth harvest, of dark-house spearing and of Upper Red Lake's winter season, and every Minnesota license expires at the end of the day. | MN |
When the shelters come off the ice
Every state sets its own deadlines, and Minnesota and Wisconsin each split the state with a line on the map. Minnesota's Iowa border waters and Michigan's Lake St. Clair come off inside this quarter; the rest arrive in March.
| State | Where | Off the ice |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | Inland, south of the line along US 10, MN 34, MN 200 and US 2 | Not left unattended overnight after the first Monday in March, March 1, 2027 |
| Minnesota | Inland, north of that line | Not left unattended overnight after the third Monday in March, March 15, 2027 |
| Minnesota | Border waters | Iowa February 20, Wisconsin March 1, the Dakotas March 5, Canada March 31 |
| Wisconsin | South of Highway 64 | Off every day after the first Sunday following March 1, March 7, 2027 |
| Wisconsin | North of Highway 64, and the Great Lakes | Off every day after the first Sunday following March 12, March 14, 2027 |
| Michigan | Lake St. Clair | Before sundown on the first Sunday after February 20, February 21, 2027 |
| Michigan | Southern Lower Peninsula | By midnight on March 1 |
| Michigan | Northern Lower Peninsula and the Wisconsin border waters | By midnight on March 15 |
| Michigan | Upper Peninsula | By midnight on March 31 |
After Minnesota's dates a shelter may stay only if someone is with it overnight; after Wisconsin's and Michigan's it must come off the ice every day. Michigan's rule adds that shanties must come off sooner if the ice turns unsafe.
State by state
Season dates, local reports, stocking and the engine outlook for each state, with its sub-regions. Everything above this point is what crosses state lines.
Minnesota
12 sub-regionsDark-house spearing opens on November 15, when Upper Red Lake drops to four walleye, and musky close at the end of the month as Lake Superior's lake trout reopen on December 1. The winter lake trout lakes open on January 16. The inland walleye, pike and spearing seasons and every license end on February 28, and Mille Lacs and Upper Red set their winter walleye rules after the fall netting.
Read the Minnesota report
Wisconsin
11 sub-regionsMusky close on December 31 and, new this season, may not be fished for through the ice. Inland trout streams reopen for catch and release at 5 a.m. on Saturday, January 2, the free fishing weekend is January 16 and 17, and Lake Winnebago's sturgeon spearing opens on Saturday, February 13. Walleye, pike and bass stay open into March, and dozens of lakes changed their own limits this year, so look the lake up before keeping fish.
Read the Wisconsin report
Michigan
11 sub-regionsThrough-ice spearing of pike and musky opens on December 1 and bass possession ends on December 31. Black Lake's sturgeon spearers go out on the first Saturday in February, the winter Free Fishing Weekend is February 13 and 14, and Lake St. Clair's shanties come off on February 21. Walleye and pike stay open into March inland and all year on the Lower Peninsula's Great Lakes waters.
Read the Michigan report
The weather and the water from November to February, most years
This part does not change from year to year, which is why it is worth reading before the forecast rather than after it.
- The weather
- Winter here is set by the lakes and by air out of Canada. Early in the quarter the open Great Lakes are still warmer than the air crossing them, so cold northwest winds pick up moisture over the water and drop lake-effect snow in bands on the downwind shores, the Upper Peninsula and western Michigan most of all, while a few miles inland stays clear. Behind each front arctic high pressure brings still, bitter, clear nights that make ice quickly, until the next low from the Plains or a clipper out of Alberta brings wind and fresh snow. Some winters bring a thaw in January that softens the ice for a week.
- The water
- Inland lakes freeze from north to south and from small and shallow to big and deep, so the ponds and back bays lock up weeks before the big walleye lakes do. Under the ice the water settles at its winter floor with the warmest of it on the bottom, and in shallow, weedy lakes the oxygen slowly falls as the winter goes on. The Great Lakes themselves mostly stay open away from shore, icing first in their sheltered bays and shallows, and the spring creeks and the tailwaters below dams run open all winter.
- How the quarter breaks
- It opens on open water and the end of the fall fishing, musky and walleye on the big lakes and trout and salmon nosing into the Lake Michigan tributaries, then goes quiet through the weeks when ice is forming and not yet safe. First ice reaches the far north in late November or December and works south into January, and from then to the end of February is the heart of the ice season, with sturgeon spearing in February on two lakes. It closes with Minnesota's inland walleye and pike season ending and the first shelter deadlines arriving, as thaws and slush make late ice the least trustworthy of the winter.
The moon from November to February
| Month | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | Mon, Nov 9 | Tue, Nov 24 |
| December 2026 | Tue, Dec 8 | Wed, Dec 23 |
| January 2027 | Thu, Jan 7 | Fri, Jan 22 |
| February 2027 | Sat, Feb 6 | Sat, Feb 20 |
The U.S. Naval Observatory's dates, on local time.
What our engine expects on the lakes, the bays and the rivers
Everything above this point either happened or happens every winter. This part is a forecast for the two weeks from the date stamped below, scored by the same engine that runs the rest of this site: water temperature, wind, river flow, rain, pressure, cloud, air temperature, UV, humidity and solunar, weighted by species and by season.
A two-week stretch of Great Lakes winter is a run of cold fronts off the plains and clippers out of Canada, with lake-effect snow downwind of the big lakes. The water temperature column identifies the source at each anchor: a thermometer reading, satellite analysis, or a labeled model. We withhold waters when the available reading does not represent them. Good hours counts the hours at or above a B-plus, which says how long a day holds.
This is a weather forecast, so it covers two weeks and not the season, and the further out a date sits the less it is worth. No forecast can say whether the ice will hold you, and none of the three states measures it for anglers, so ask the bait shops, resorts and clubs before you go out. We publish a grade, not a promise.
Engine outlook generated November 3, 2026, covering 30 waters.
What this report does not cover
- This is a seasonal guide, not a continuously updated field report. Its engine outlook covers only the dated two-week window. A report from October says nothing about December's ice, so for current conditions use the reporters named in each state's section.
- Ice conditions are not in this edition and cannot be: they change by the day and by the bay.
- Mille Lacs's and Upper Red Lake's winter walleye rules are set after the fall netting and announced in November; this edition prints what was in effect on October 20.
- License prices are printed as read on October 20, and Minnesota's next license year starts on March 1.
Waters we are not grading in this outlook
Some waters that would otherwise appear in the outlook are left out of it, because the nearest water-temperature station sits on a different water or because no thermometer we can read measures them, and water temperature is between a fifth and a third of the score. The ones held back are listed below, each with the station it was offered instead.
- Root River near Houston (MN)
These waters are closed to the species we grade them for on every day of the two weeks, so the engine grades none of their days.
- Lake Superior off Duluth (MN): Minnesota's Lake Superior lake trout season is closed until December 1