Oregon Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Every sentence here comes from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) publishes a weekly trout stocking schedule: the week each of its stocked reservoirs, lakes and ponds is due, and with how many trout. On top of Oregon's native trout, ODFW stocks over 5 million a year, as its trout page put it in 2026. Most of the trout go into lakes and ponds from February to June, while the low water is still cool. In summer the stocking moves up to higher, cooler lakes, and a few lakes are stocked again in October.

From ODFW: Weekly trout stocking schedule, ODFW: Trout, ODFW: Northwest Oregon Fishing, ODFW: Northeast Zone and ODFW: Willamette Zone.

The ODFW trout stocking schedule

The weeks ahead at reservoirs, lakes and ponds across the state, searchable by zone, water and date, with the number of legal, trophy, brood and fingerling trout for each. It also keeps two years of past stockings. Each row is the week a water is due, not the day, and the Monday date starts the week. Fish can go in a week early or late, or go somewhere else when a water is in poor shape, and staff do not always have time to change the schedule, so check the weekly Recreation Report for the water too.

Open the Weekly trout stocking schedule
  • Trout stocking maps: ODFW's maps of the stocked waters, one for each region, with directions, restrooms and picnic tables, bank access, boat ramps, parking and the other fish in each water. The schedule says when; the maps show how to get there.

From ODFW: Weekly trout stocking schedule and ODFW: Trout stocking maps.

When Oregon stocks trout

Spring stocking in lakes and ponds

On the coast and in southwest Oregon, lakes and ponds are stocked with rainbow trout from February through May. In the Willamette Valley stocking can start as early as January and runs through May, and in northeast Oregon it runs from April through June. It ends when the low water warms. ODFW says warm water and weed growth make fishing tough by then, and hard on the fish. The Willamette Zone's reservoirs are stocked with hundreds of thousands of rainbow trout every year.

Summer stocking at higher, cooler lakes

From June or July the stocking moves up to cooler water: the higher lakes and reservoirs on the flanks of the Cascades in the Willamette Zone, and larger or higher lakes in northeast Oregon. The Rogue River above Lost Creek Reservoir is stocked at several spots through the summer, and central Oregon's cold lakes fish well all summer.

Fall stocking

Some lakes and ponds in the Northwest Zone, on the north and central coast, are stocked again in October.

From ODFW: Northwest Oregon Fishing, ODFW: Fishing in Southwest Oregon, ODFW: Willamette Zone, ODFW: Northeast Zone and ODFW: Central Zone.

Rules on stocked water

  • Everyone 12 and older needs an Oregon fishing license, and kids under 12 fish free. A youth license for ages 12 to 17 is $10. In 2026 an annual angling license is $50 for residents and $138 for nonresidents, and for trout that license is all you need.
  • In all six of the schedule's zones the limit is 5 trout a day from lakes and ponds, which are open all year.
  • Rivers and streams allow 2 trout a day from May 22 to October 31, except in the Willamette Zone, where they are catch-and-release only, and the Southeast Zone, where they are open all year.
  • Those are each zone's general rules, and many waters have exceptions, so read the rules for the water you mean to fish. ODFW changes its fishing rules every other year, and the ones adopted in September 2025 run through 2026 and 2027.
  • Since 2026, kokanee have a limit of their own, 10 a day, apart from the trout limit.

From ODFW: 10 steps to becoming an angler, ODFW: Recreational Fee Schedule (PDF), ODFW: Weekly trout stocking schedule, ODFW: Northwest Oregon Fishing, ODFW: Fishing in Southwest Oregon, ODFW: Willamette Zone, ODFW: Central Zone, ODFW: Northeast Zone, ODFW: Southeast Zone and ODFW: Commission adopts 2026-27 Sport Fishing and 2026 Big Game Hunting Regulations (12 September 2025).

How to hear about a stocking

  • ODFW's biologists update the Recreation Report every week, zone by zone, and ODFW says to check it for changes to the stocking schedule.
  • Rules can also change during the year, so check ODFW's in-season updates before you fish. In the 2026 drought, for one, it lifted the bag limits at three Union County reservoirs and made Klamath Basin redband trout catch-and-release.

From ODFW: Trout stocking maps, ODFW: Weekly trout stocking schedule, ODFW: Oregon fishing and hunting regulations and updates and ODFW: Summer Fishing Outlook in a Dry Year (11 June 2026).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • A dry year changes the schedule. In June 2026, with Oregon's snowpack at a record low, ODFW said trout stocking had stopped at most valley ponds and that some desert reservoirs might not have the water to be stocked at all.
  • Hike-in lakes work differently. Every two years ODFW drops brook, rainbow and cutthroat trout into hundreds of high lakes, mostly by helicopter, as 3-inch fingerlings, and they take about two years to reach the 8 inches you can keep.
  • Tiger trout, stocked in Diamond and Fish lakes to eat the invasive bait fish there, are catch-and-release only.
  • An Oregon fishing license runs from January 1 to December 31, so one bought in the fall runs out at New Year.
  • Blue-green algae blooms can make a lake unsafe in warm weather, and the Oregon Health Authority posts advisories for the waters that have them.

From ODFW: Summer Fishing Outlook in a Dry Year (11 June 2026), ODFW: Stocking Oregon's hike-in lakes, ODFW: Trout and ODFW: Licensing Info.

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 · Brook 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.