Missouri Trout Stocking Schedule 2026
Every sentence here comes from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), and each section names its sources. Updated .
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) stocks rainbow and brown trout in four trout parks every day from March 1 through October 31, in city and conservation area lakes through the winter from early November, and in Lake Taneycomo and the trout streams it manages. Trout are not native to Missouri; stocking keeps them there. MDC's largest trout hatchery, Shepherd of the Hills below Table Rock Dam, sends 80 percent of its fish to Lake Taneycomo and the rest to other trout waters.
From MDC: Trout Parks, MDC: Winter Trout Fishing Areas, MDC: Lake Taneycomo Prospect Report, MDC: Trout Special Area Regulations, MDC: Trout and MDC: Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery.
The MDC trout stocking schedule
The four trout parks, Maramec Spring, Bennett Spring, Montauk and Roaring River, each with its own hatchery, stocked every day of the season, with the daily tag prices and limits.
Open the Trout Parks page- Winter Trout Fishing Areas page: Every lake stocked for winter trout, by region, from Kansas City and St. Joseph to St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, with stocking hotlines for the Kansas City and St. Louis lakes. Each lake keeps its own limits and tackle rules, which change with the season, so look up the lake before you go.
When Missouri stocks trout
Daily stocking in the trout parks
From March 1 through October 31, MDC stocks Bennett Spring, Montauk and Roaring River state parks and Maramec Spring Park every day, from the hatcheries at the parks.
Winter trout lakes
Through the winter, starting in early November, rainbow trout go into city and conservation area lakes across the state, from Cosmo-Bethel Lake in Columbia and Jesse James Park Lake in Kearney to the August A. Busch Conservation Area lakes near St. Louis.
Rules on stocked water
- Anglers need a Missouri fishing permit unless exempt: $14 a year for residents and $57 for nonresidents, or $9 a day for either. Anyone 15 or younger fishes without one.
- A trout permit, $12 for residents, $24 for nonresidents and $6 for anglers 15 and younger, is needed to keep trout anywhere outside the trout parks, to fish the parks in winter, and to fish at all on Lake Taneycomo above the U.S. Highway 65 bridge.
- In the trout parks from March 1 to October 31, every angler also needs a daily trout tag, $5 for adults and $3 for 15 and younger. The limit is 4 trout, and you must stop fishing for anything once you have 8 in possession.
- From the second Friday in November to the second Monday in February the parks are catch-and-release only, with flies only and a trout permit in place of the tag. Maramec Spring is open daily then, and the three state parks Friday to Monday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Elsewhere the limit is 4 trout a day and 8 in possession, with no size limit on rainbows and a 15-inch minimum for browns in streams, unless a water has special rules. At the winter lakes trout may be kept under those limits, with a trout permit, unless the lake rules say otherwise.
- Ribbon trout streams have their own limits. Blue Ribbon areas allow 1 trout of at least 18 inches, on flies and artificial lures only; Red Ribbon areas with an artificial-lure rule allow 2 of at least 15 inches; White Ribbon areas allow 4, with browns at least 15 inches.
From MDC: Trout Permits, MDC: Permit Exemptions, MDC: Trout Parks, MDC: Trout Seasons and MDC: Trout Special Area Regulations.
How to hear about a stocking
- The Kansas City and St. Louis winter lakes have stocking hotlines: 816-525-0300 for Kansas City and 636-300-9651 for St. Louis.
Worth knowing before you go looking
- Lake Taneycomo, below Table Rock Dam, gets the most trout in the state: about 560,000 rainbows and 15,000 browns a year by MDC's 2025 prospect report. Above the Highway 65 bridge everyone needs a trout permit to fish at all, for any species.
- The stocked streams are not only the parks. White Ribbon streams get rainbows from time to time, and some get browns; the Blue Ribbon stretches of the Current and North Fork of the White are stocked with browns and the Eleven Point with rainbows, under far tighter limits.
- On some streams porous-soled waders are banned, and wherever a length limit applies, a kept trout must keep its head, tail and skin.
From MDC: Lake Taneycomo Prospect Report, MDC: Trout Permits and MDC: Trout Special Area Regulations.
Which day to fish it
The schedule says where the fish went in. Which day to go is a different question: the forecast scores each day of the week for trout at the water you pick, from its water temperature, the wind and the weather.
See the week for rainbow troutSpecies guides: Rainbow Trout · Brown Trout
Sources
Every sentence above was read on one of these pages, and a check re-reads each quoted line against the page it came from.
Spotted something out of date or plain wrong here? Tell us and we will check it.