Montana Trout Stocking Report 2026

Every sentence here comes from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (Montana FWP), and each section names its sources. Updated .

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks posts its plants in FishMT, water by water: the date, the species and strain, how many fish, their size and the hatchery they came from. A water's record also carries FWP's plan for it, year by year through 2031. At seven town and family ponds across the state, FWP's records show rainbow trout going in from April into June in 2026, and five of them got a second plant in September.

From Montana FWP FishMT: Fish Stocking Data, Montana FWP FishMT: Spring Meadow Lake stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Pine Grove Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Frenchtown Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Lake Elmo stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Warm Springs Kids Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Bozeman Pond stocking records and plan and Montana FWP FishMT: Glasgow Base Pond stocking records and plan.

The Montana FWP trout stocking report

Every plant on record for a water, with its date, species, strain, number, size and hatchery, and the plan for the years ahead. Bozeman Pond's record goes back to 1960. Click the water on the map, pick it from the list if several light up, and press Search.

Open the Fish Stocking Data (FishMT)

From Montana FWP: Fish Stocking, Montana FWP FishMT: Bozeman Pond stocking records and plan and Montana FWP FishMT: Fish Stocking Data.

When Montana stocks trout

Spring plants in town and family ponds

In 2026 the first plants came in early April: Pine Grove Pond on April 2 and Frenchtown Pond on April 8, then Lake Elmo on April 14 and Warm Springs Kids Pond on April 24. They went on through May and June: Spring Meadow Lake on May 11, Lake Elmo again on May 5 and June 3, and Bozeman Pond and Glasgow Base Pond on June 16. Most of these plants averaged 7 to 9 inches. Some plants are big fish. Pine Grove Pond got 83 rainbows averaging about 21 inches on April 1, 2026, and its plan lists broodstock rainbows every year through 2031. Spring Meadow Lake and Pine Grove Pond also get westslope cutthroat in late spring.

A second round in September

Several ponds get a second plant in September. In 2026 Spring Meadow Lake got one on September 8, Bozeman Pond on September 10, Lake Elmo on September 14, Glasgow Base Pond on September 15 and Frenchtown Pond on September 22. The fall fish can be bigger: Glasgow Base Pond's September 2026 plant averaged about 12 inches, against 6.7 inches in June, and its plan lists 12-inch rainbows every year.

From Montana FWP FishMT: Pine Grove Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Frenchtown Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Lake Elmo stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Warm Springs Kids Pond stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Spring Meadow Lake stocking records and plan, Montana FWP FishMT: Bozeman Pond stocking records and plan and Montana FWP FishMT: Glasgow Base Pond stocking records and plan.

Rules on stocked water

  • Anglers 12 and older need a conservation license and a base fishing license, plus the Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Pass. Residents pay $8, $2 and $21 for the season (or $5 for two days); nonresidents pay $10, $7.50 and $100 for the season, or $14 for one day or $56 for five. A season license runs from March 1 to the end of February.
  • Unless the water is listed as an exception, lakes and reservoirs in all three fishing districts allow 5 rainbow, brown and other combined trout a day and 10 in possession, with only one over 22 inches in the Western District; brook trout have their own, higher limit. Rivers and streams allow 3 combined trout a day in the Western and Central districts and 5 in the Eastern.
  • Region 1's kids' trout ponds, Pine Grove Pond and Nine Pipes Pond among them, are catch-and-release for trout, except that anglers 14 and younger may keep one a day, fishing one rod.

From Montana FWP: Fishing License Basics and Montana FWP: 2026 Montana Fishing Regulations (PDF).

How to hear about a stocking

  • Look up the water in FishMT's stocking records before a trip, and read its plan to see what FWP means to plant there this year.

From Montana FWP: Region 4 Ponds, Lakes and Reservoirs Fishing Guide, 2026 (PDF), Montana FWP FishMT: Fish Stocking Data and Montana FWP FishMT: Lake Elmo stocking records and plan.

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • A Beartooth mountain lake is planted with Yellowstone cutthroat fingerlings once every eight years as standard, and the fish are gone within 7 to 9 years, so what a lake holds depends on where it is in that cycle. Busy lakes are stocked more often. The Mountain Lakes Guide gives each lake's stocking history.
  • In the Western District, rivers and streams open the third Saturday in May and close November 30 unless an exception says otherwise. Lakes and reservoirs are open all year there, and every water in the Central and Eastern districts is open all year.
  • A pond can lose its fish over a winter of low water. The 2026 Region 4 guide lists several that lost their trout this way, to be restocked in 2026 or once the water comes back up, so check the record before driving out.

From Montana FWP: Mountain Lakes Guide, Absaroka-Beartooth and Crazy Mountains, 2025 (PDF), Montana FWP: Fishing License Basics and Montana FWP: Region 4 Ponds, Lakes and Reservoirs Fishing Guide, 2026 (PDF).

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 trout

Species guides: Rainbow Trout · Cutthroat 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.