Northeast Fishing Report: November 2026 to February 2027
This is the November 2026 to February 2027 edition at its permanent link. See the current Northeast report.
Most of the region fishes under rules it did not have last winter, and Pennsylvania changes on New Year's Day
Most of what a Northeast angler needs to know this winter is not the weather. Massachusetts now allows six trout a day instead of three. Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey are each in their first full winter under rewritten freshwater rules, and New Jersey's cut the winter trout limit from four to two. Maine has banned small painted lead jigs on inland water, which reaches every ice angler's tackle box, and Rhode Island has made it illegal to tip leftover bait into the pond.
Pennsylvania's trout minimum rises from 7 inches to 9 on January 1, partway through its extended season. More is pending: Maine's 2027 rules package, New York's cod ban and earlier coolwater closing, and New Hampshire's re-adoption of the rules for the lakes it shares with Maine, which lapsed in January and go to a hearing on November 10.
Every state's rules are below under the same headings, written for someone fishing that state for the first time: which license, which waters stay open, how many lines go through the ice, and whether bait from home can come with you. In northern New England it cannot.
January 1 opens the ice and closes a license year
On New Year's Day Maine's North Zone lakes, New Hampshire's lake trout lakes and Vermont's lakes and ponds open to keeping fish through the ice, New Jersey's striped bass season shrinks to the ocean within three miles, and Pennsylvania's trout minimum goes from 7 inches to 9. Licenses in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey expire the midnight before, so the first day of the ice season is also the first day an old license is no good. Rhode Island's runs to the end of February and New York's for 365 days from purchase.
Dates that change what you may keep
24 of these 44 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 1 | The Salmon River below the Route 52 bridge goes back to allowing several single, double or treble hooks on floating lures, through April 14. | NY |
| Sun November 1 | The Kennebec's East Outlet, from the Moosehead dam to the tail of Beach Pool, opens to fly fishing only, catch and release, through March 31. | ME |
| Tue November 10 | New Hampshire's public hearing on rulemaking notice 2026-201 (the bait list, the lake trout and salmon lakes and the waters shared with Maine), 6 pm at Fish and Game headquarters, Concord; written comments to November 18. | NH |
| Wed November 11 | New York Free Fishing Day for Veterans Day: no freshwater license needed, residents and visitors alike. The last of the year. | NY |
| Sun November 15 | Tip-ups become legal through the ice in New York, and Lake Champlain allows up to 15 ice-fishing lines from today. | NY |
| Sun November 15 | Massachusetts' Winter Cod Conservation Zone, the state waters off Winthrop, Revere, Nahant and Lynn, closes to every gear that can catch cod, rod and reel included, through January 31. | MA |
| Mon November 16 | New Jersey tautog go from one a day to five, 15 inches, through December 31. | NJ |
| Fri November 20 | The first day a fishing house may go on the ice in Vermont. | VT |
| Wed November 25 | Last day of black sea bass for private anglers in Connecticut; party and charter boats keep them to December 31. | CT |
| Sat November 28 | Last day of tautog in Connecticut. | CT |
| Mon November 30 | Last day for the Maine fall catch-and-release extensions written "October 1 - November 30". North Zone waters without an A or B code then close until spring. | ME |
| Mon November 30 | Last day of New York's black bass harvest, of muskellunge statewide and on Lake Champlain, of striped bass on the Hudson north of the George Washington Bridge, and of the Salmon River's Upper Fly section. | NY |
| Mon November 30 | Sudbury Reservoir and the three Sterling ponds close for the winter; Wachusett and the Quabbin shorelines stay open to December 31. | MA |
| Mon November 30 | Last day of striped bass fishing in Maine's Kennebec, Sheepscot and Androscoggin watershed, closed from December 1 to June 30. | ME |
| Mon November 30 | The Hatchery Cove closure on Lake Champlain ends. | VT |
| Tue December 1 | New York black bass go catch and release with artificial lures statewide. Lake Erie keeps one fish of 20 inches; in Jefferson County's Lake Ontario waters, the St. Lawrence and the tidal Hudson, bass fishing closes altogether. Striped bass fishing of any kind closes on the Hudson above the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, and Lake Ontario lake trout reopen. | NY |
| Tue December 1 | Rhode Island's trout limit drops from five a day to two, through the end of February. | RI |
| Tue December 1 | Maine waters coded S-10 close to all fishing until March 31. | ME |
| Tue December 1 | Pennsylvania's 2027 licenses and permits go on sale, valid from the day they are bought. In Vermont bass go catch and release on sixteen listed ponds, Lowell Lake and Retreat Meadows among them. | PA, VT |
| Wed December 9 | Last day of New York tautog in the Long Island Sound region. | NY |
| Tue December 15 | Last day of New York's marine striped bass season, and of muskellunge on Lake Erie, the Niagara, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. | NY |
| Wed December 16 | One broodstock Atlantic salmon a day may be kept on the Naugatuck, Shetucket and Housatonic, on a fly or a single-hook lure. | CT |
| Thu December 17 | Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission meets at SMAST East, New Bedford, the likely meeting for next year's proposals. | MA |
| Tue December 22 | Last day of New York tautog in the New York Bight region. | NY |
| Thu December 31 | Last day of tautog and scup in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, last day of black sea bass and summer flounder as well. In New York, last day of black sea bass and scup. | MA, RI, NY |
| Thu December 31 | Maine and Massachusetts licenses, Maine's saltwater registration and Massachusetts and Rhode Island saltwater permits expire at midnight. Rhode Island's freshwater license does not. A New York fishing license does not expire at the new year: it runs 365 days from the day it is bought. | ME, MA, RI, NY |
| Thu December 31 | In Massachusetts, last day of shore fishing at Quabbin and Wachusett, unless DCR closes either early for ice. In Maine, last day of Sebago's artificial-lures-only period. | MA, ME |
| Thu December 31 | Connecticut and New Jersey licenses and trout stamps expire at midnight. Last day of scup, winter flounder and party-boat black sea bass in Connecticut. In New Jersey, last day of winter flounder and of the 15-fish black sea bass limit. | CT, NJ |
| Thu December 31 | Last day to keep a striped bass in New Jersey's bays and rivers, the tidal Delaware and fresh water until March 1. Last day of New Hampshire's autumn rules on the lake trout and salmon lakes, and of its five-bass limit. | NJ, NH |
| Fri January 1 | Maine North Zone waters coded B open to ice fishing, Moosehead, Chesuncook and Square Lake among them; lakes shared with New Hampshire open to ice fishing; East Grand Lake and Branch Lake reopen. | ME |
| Fri January 1 | Finger Lakes tributaries close to trout and salmon fishing until March 31, apart from catch and release on Fall Creek below Ithaca Falls. The lower Niagara walleye limit drops to one. | NY |
| Fri January 1 | The Swift River from Route 9 to Cady Lane leaves its catch-and-release period; harvest and bait are allowed again. | MA |
| Fri January 1 | New Hampshire's lake trout and salmon lakes open through the ice only, and its rivers and streams reopen. Vermont's lakes and ponds open to keeping trout, salmon and bass through the ice, to March 15. | NH, VT |
| Fri January 1 | Pennsylvania's trout minimum rises from 7 inches to 9. New Jersey tautog drop to four a day, and a striped bass may be kept there only in the ocean within three miles of shore. | PA, NJ |
| Fri January 15 | Sebec Lake opens to ice fishing, through March 15. | ME |
| Sat January 16 | New Hampshire free fishing day: no license needed in fresh or salt water. | NH |
| Sat January 30 | Vermont's Free Ice Fishing Day: no license needed to ice fish any water open to it. | VT |
| Mon February 1 | West Grand Lake opens to ice fishing for February and March only, and Maine's sea-run smelt between the New Hampshire line and Owls Head become through-the-ice only. | ME |
| Sat 13 and Sun February 14 | Maine free fishing weekend, the Saturday and Sunday before Presidents' Day: no license needed on inland waters. | ME |
| Sun February 14 | Last day of Pennsylvania's extended trout season on stocked trout waters, which close to all fishing at 12:01 a.m. on February 15 until opening day. | PA |
| Mon February 15 | Moosehead Lake opens to keeping landlocked salmon through the ice, and Madawaska Lake opens to ice fishing. | ME |
| Sun February 28 | At midnight Rhode Island's trout season ends and every designated trout water, Wallum Lake on the Massachusetts line included, closes until opening day in April. The Rhode Island freshwater license and trout stamp expire at the same midnight. | RI |
| Sun February 28 | Last day to keep Gulf of Maine haddock, in Maine and Massachusetts, before the March closure. Last day of Massachusetts' inland smelt season. | ME, MA |
| Sun February 28 | Last day to keep trout in Connecticut until opening day: from March 1 every trout water is catch and release. Last day of New Jersey's winter tautog season and of walleye harvest before March and April catch and release. | CT, NJ |
Through the ice: how many lines, state by state
The line limit is the rule a traveling ice angler breaks most easily, because it changes at every state line. Most states allow five to eight, New Hampshire adds cusk devices on its cusk lakes, and Lake Champlain allows fifteen on both shores.
| State | Through the ice | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Maine | 5 lines, traps and jig rods together | Waters coded S-8 allow two |
| New Hampshire | 6 devices, plus 6 cusk devices where allowed | Lake trout and salmon lakes: 2 devices plus the cusk devices |
| Vermont | 8 lines | 15 on Lake Champlain; a line showing a fish tended within 30 minutes |
| Massachusetts | 5 hooks down | Any mix of tip-ups and jig sticks, every one tended |
| Rhode Island | 5 lines, one hook each | 6 on Beach, Killingly and Hazard ponds, on the Connecticut line |
| Connecticut | 6 tip-ups and jigging rods | Up to 3 hooks or lures a line; name and address on each |
| New York | 7 lines | 15 on Lake Champlain; tip-ups legal from November 15 |
| New Jersey | 5 devices | Name and address on any not held in the hand |
| Pennsylvania | 5 devices | One line each, all under immediate control |
Each figure is in that state's section below with the agency's own words. A water's own rule can set fewer lines than the state's, so read its entry before drilling.
Salt water in January and February
By New Year most of the region's saltwater seasons have closed, and the ones still open differ by state. These are the three fish most winter trips are about.
| State | Striped bass | Tautog | Cod |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | Open, 1 fish of 28 to under 31 in; Kennebec, Sheepscot and Androscoggin closed | Not covered here | Closed |
| New Hampshire | Open, 1 fish of 28 to under 31 in | Not covered here | Closed |
| Massachusetts | Open, 1 fish of 28 to under 31 in | Closed from January 1 | Closed |
| Rhode Island | Open, 1 fish of 28 to under 31 in | Closed from January 1 | Closed at all times |
| Connecticut | Open, 1 fish of 28 to under 31 in | Closed after November 28 | Follows federal rules |
| New York | Closed after December 15 | Closed after December 9 or 22 | Open, 5 of at least 23 in; a ban is pending |
| New Jersey | Ocean within 3 miles only; bays and rivers closed to March 1 | Open, 4 a day of at least 15 in | Open, 5 of at least 23 in |
Federal water beyond three miles is closed to striped bass everywhere. Maine and New Hampshire tautog rules were not part of this research, so those cells say so rather than guess. Every other cell is in the state's own section below.
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.
New York
10 sub-regionsNew York's winter is the Great Lakes tributaries. The steelhead water on the Salmon River and the Ontario and Erie tributaries runs under its own rules until March 31, and on November 1 the Salmon River lets floating lures carry trebles again. Inland the trout streams are catch and release until March 31, black bass go catch and release on December 1 and close outright in the North Country, and tip-ups become legal on November 15. In salt water striped bass end on December 15 and tautog on the 9th or the 22nd, depending on which side of the Sound line you fish.
Read the New York report
Pennsylvania
6 sub-regionsPennsylvania's stocked trout waters stay open all winter in the extended season, three trout a day, until 12:01 a.m. on February 15, 2027, the third Monday in February, when they close until opening day. On January 1 the minimum size for keeping a trout rises from 7 inches to 9, the first change since 1983, so a fish that is legal on December 31 is not on New Year's Day. Lake Erie's tributaries are the winter steelhead fishery and need a trout permit and a Lake Erie permit on top of the license, and next year's license goes on sale on December 1 and is good from the day it is bought.
Read the Pennsylvania report
New Jersey
5 sub-regionsNew Jersey's freshwater rules changed on February 17, 2026, and the change a winter angler meets first is the trout limit: two a day from June 1 to opening day, where last winter allowed four. Trout-stocked lakes and ponds no longer close before opening day; rivers and streams still do. In salt water the dates to know are November 16, when tautog go to five a day, and December 31, after which a striped bass may be kept only in the ocean within three miles of shore until March 1. Saltwater anglers register, free; the freshwater license has to be worn where it can be seen.
Read the New Jersey report
Massachusetts
7 sub-regionsMassachusetts changes more this winter than any state in the region, because MassWildlife rewrote its trout rules on September 25: six trout a day instead of three, no more than three of them brook, brown or tiger, and you may now keep fishing catch and release after reaching a limit. In the salt, tautog run to December 31 and striped bass all year, cod are closed, and from November 15 the water north of Boston Harbor is closed to cod gear. Quabbin's and Wachusett's shorelines stay open to December 31, later than MassWildlife's own page says.
Read the Massachusetts report
Rhode Island
3 sub-regionsRhode Island is the state where the license calendar catches people: the freshwater license and the trout stamp run to the last day of February, the saltwater license to December 31. Its salt stays open later than its neighbor's, with black sea bass, summer flounder and scup open to December 31 where Massachusetts closed the first two long ago, and the trout limit drops to two a day on December 1. Three new freshwater rules apply this winter, and one of them ends the habit of tipping leftover shiners into the pond.
Read the Rhode Island report
Connecticut
6 sub-regionsConnecticut's trout have no closed season, but they do have a closed harvest: from March 1 until opening day every trout water is catch and release, and the Trout Management Areas have been since September 1. This is the first full winter under the inland rules that took effect on January 1, 2026, with a 9-inch minimum on trout, three more Trout Parks at two a day, bass catch and release all year on the upper Housatonic and a 22-inch minimum for pickerel on three lakes. In salt water private anglers lose black sea bass after November 25 and tautog after November 28, party and charter boats keep black sea bass to December 31, and broodstock salmon may be kept from December 16.
Read the Connecticut report
Vermont
6 sub-regionsVermont's fish and baitfish rules changed on January 1, 2026, so this is the first full winter under them: inland panfish are 50 a day with no more than 25 crappie, Lake Memphremagog keeps one lake trout a day of at least 24 inches, and Mud Pond in Hyde Park joins the ponds closed all winter. Streams stay open through the winter for catch and release on lures and flies, lakes and ponds open to keeping trout, salmon and bass through the ice on January 1, an angler may fish eight lines through the ice and fifteen on Lake Champlain, and Free Ice Fishing Day is the last Saturday in January.
Read the Vermont report
New Hampshire
5 sub-regionsNew Hampshire's winter turns on January 1. Until then the big lakes, Winnipesaukee, Squam, Winnisquam, Sunapee and Newfound among them, are closed to lake trout, brook trout, salmon and whitefish and closed to trolling, and rivers and streams are shut. From January 1 those lakes are ice fishing only, two devices plus six for cusk and no salmon or smelt, while most other lakes allow six devices. The third Saturday in January is a free fishing day, Great Bay's smelt shanties need only the saltwater license, and cod are closed all winter.
Read the New Hampshire report
Maine
6 sub-regionsMaine's winter comes in two halves. Through November and December the fishing is in the South Zone, whose lakes stay open all year, and on the fall catch-and-release extensions, which end on November 30 or December 31 depending on the water. On January 1 the North Zone's coded waters open through the ice, Moosehead, Chesuncook and Square Lake among them. The change that reaches every ice angler is in the tackle box: painted lead jigs small enough to fish through the ice are now banned on inland water.
Read the Maine 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
- The storm track is back across the region in force, so systems come through hard and often, and the first lake-effect snow falls behind them off Erie and Ontario. Through the depth of it, arctic high pressure slides down behind a front and brings the clear, hard, windless cold that locks water up, then a coastal low runs up the seaboard and brings wind, snow inland and rain on the coast. Neither shape lasts a week. By the end the sun is noticeably higher, and that changes what the cold does: mid-winter thaws become common, and a late-winter rain on snowpack is the first real flood risk of the year.
- The water
- Water heads for its winter floor and reaches it, and once there the whole column sits near the same temperature, so depth matters less than at any other time of year. Rivers come back up on autumn rain early in the quarter, which is what brings the late runs in, then run cold and clear once the ground freezes, because frozen ground sheds rain rather than filtering it. Under ice a lake can lose little more heat. The ocean is still giving up what it stored in summer, so it lags the land by weeks.
- How the quarter breaks
- The longest quarter, and the one that changes least in the middle and most at its ends. Sunset comes before the end of the working day at the start of it. First safe ice arrives in the Adirondacks and northern New England while open water persists everywhere south of them, and ice thickens from north to south: the Northeast Kingdom and northern Maine are reliable, southern New England and the Pennsylvania lakes may not get safe ice at all. Ice is thickest early in February and least trustworthy late in it, and those are two different fisheries. By the last weeks there is running water in the Lake Ontario tributaries again.
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, water by water
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, tides or river flow, rain, pressure, cloud, air temperature, UV, humidity and solunar, weighted by species and by season.
Good hours counts the hours in the day at or above a B-plus, and it answers a different question from the grade: one day can look excellent and hold for only a few hours while a slightly lower-rated day holds most of the daylight. And the water temperature column says whether a gauge measured the figure or a model produced it, because water temperature is usually the largest single input to the score and the two are not the same claim.
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. On a lake the engine can identify and reads as iced over, it grades the species that state creel surveys have measured through the ice for fishing through it, and every other species as open water. It cannot tell you how thick the ice is or whether it is safe to walk on, and nothing on this page should be read that way. We publish a grade, not a promise.
Engine outlook generated November 3, 2026, covering 36 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 water temperature or an ice thickness quoted in October would be wrong long before February, so for current conditions use the publishers named in each state section.
- Nobody in this region checks ice for anglers, agencies included. A date a lake froze is not a date it became safe, and a report that a lake is fishable is about one spot on one day.
- Rules proposed but not adopted when this was written are marked pending, Maine's 2027 package and New York's cod ban and coolwater dates among them. Agencies adopt rules in the middle of a season; check before relying on a pending one either way.
- License prices are not printed. Several can change on January 1, and one agency gives different prices for the same license on different pages.
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 sits on a river whose flow a dam release sets, 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 where there was one.
- Housatonic River (CT): nearest station is WEST BRANCH FARMINGTON RIVER AT RIVERTON, CT
- Androscoggin River at Errol (NH): nearest station is CONNECTICUT R BELOW INDIAN STREAM NR PITTSBURG, NH
- Salmon River NY
- Erie Pennsylvania (PA): nearest station is French Creek at Cambridge Springs, PA
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.
- Long Lake (Aroostook) (ME): closed under Maine's North Zone general law until January 1, when its own law opens it to ice fishing
- Moosehead Lake (ME): closed under Maine's North Zone general law until January 1, when its own law opens it to ice fishing
- Rangeley Lake (ME): closed from October 1 to March 31 under Maine's North Zone general law, and closed to ice fishing by its own law
- Saco River near Conway (NH): closed from October 16 until January 1, when New Hampshire's rivers and streams reopen