New York Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Every sentence here comes from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) stocks most of its trout in spring: more than 1.7 million catchable brook, brown and rainbow trout from mid-March to early June in 2026. DEC posts that spring plan ahead, around mid-March, county by county. In the fall it stocks big broodstock trout in Western New York and brown trout on Long Island, and announces those region by region.

From DEC: Start of Trout Fishing Season on April 1 (27 March 2026), DEC: Fish Stocking, DEC: Continued Impacts to Fishing Access in Harwood Lake (7 October 2025) and DEC: Annual I FISH NY Fall Fishing Festival (2 October 2026).

The NYS DEC trout stocking schedule

The waters DEC plans to stock with yearling and older trout for the spring season, one list per county, with the number, species and size of the fish and, for trout streams, the scheduled week. Open your county's list. It is the plan, posted once a year around mid-March (19 March in 2026), so treat a week as the target rather than a promise.

Open the DEC Spring Trout Stocking lists
  • Spring 2026 Trout Stocking Summary: The same spring plan for the whole state in one PDF, region by region and county by county.
  • Fish Stocking List: 2011 to last year: What was actually stocked, every species, from 2011 through last year, searchable by county, water, species or size. The current year is never in it: each year is compiled after it ends, and the 2025 record went up on 23 June 2026.
  • Trout Stream Fishing Map: Which stream reaches are stocked, stocked-extended, wild-quality or wild-premier, which decides the rules on them. It shows what a reach is, not when it is stocked, and DEC says it works best on a desktop.

From DEC: Fish Stocking, DEC: Start of Trout Fishing Season on April 1 (27 March 2026), DEC: Spring 2026 Trout Stocking Summary (PDF) and DEC: Spring Trout Stocking.

When New York stocks trout

Spring

Spring stocking begins in March and runs through early June, and most stream stockings include larger trout of 12 inches or more as a tenth of the fish. Stream reaches designated Stocked-Extended get fish every other week for two months, so there are fresh fish through the season.

Fall

In Western New York, DEC's Randolph State Fish Hatchery stocks broodstock trout into the region's lakes in early October. They are big fish: 13 to 30 inches in DEC's 2025 description. On Long Island, DEC stocks brown trout in ponds and lakes in Nassau and Suffolk counties, among them Upper Twin Pond, Oyster Bay Mill Pond and Massapequa Reservoir. In 2026 it said those stockings would be done by 1 November.

From DEC: Spring Trout Stocking, DEC: Start of Trout Fishing Season on April 1 (27 March 2026), DEC: Continued Impacts to Fishing Access in Harwood Lake (7 October 2025) and DEC: Annual I FISH NY Fall Fishing Festival (2 October 2026).

Rules on stocked water

  • Trout season opens on 1 April. On streams under the statewide rules, which covers stocked streams, you may keep 5 trout a day, no more than 2 of them longer than 12 inches, from 1 April to 15 October. From 16 October to 31 March it is catch and release with artificial lures only.
  • Stocked-Extended reaches, which DEC lists region by region, allow 3 a day with no more than 1 longer than 12 inches from 1 April to 15 October, then catch and release with artificial lures only.

From DEC: Start of Trout Fishing Season on April 1 (27 March 2026) and DEC: Inland Trout Stream Regulations.

How to hear about a stocking

  • In Western New York, DEC lists the lakes and creeks stocked with broodstock trout on its weekly Lake Erie and Western New York Fishing Hotline, which can also be heard by phone at 716-855-3474.
  • For the fall stocking on Long Island, DEC's Bureau of Fisheries takes questions at (631) 444-0280.
  • DEC's HuntFishNY app has a Tackle Box feature with stocking, access sites and regulations, water by water.

From DEC: Continued Impacts to Fishing Access in Harwood Lake (7 October 2025), DEC: Lake Erie and Western New York Fishing Hotline, DEC: Annual I FISH NY Fall Fishing Festival (2 October 2026) and DEC: Start of Trout Fishing Season on April 1 (27 March 2026).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • The planned list covers spring only. What goes in during the fall is announced region by region, as above, and shows up in the stocking record the following year.
  • Check the season printed on any DEC stocking PDF before trusting it. The statewide spring list sits at an address dated March 2024, and in October 2026 it held the spring 2026 list.

From DEC: Fish Stocking and DEC: Spring 2026 Trout Stocking Summary (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: Brook Trout · Brown Trout · Rainbow 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.