Texas Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Every sentence here comes from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) stocks rainbow trout in about 100 places each winter, from late November or early December into March. In most of Texas the water is too warm for trout to live through the summer. TPWD posts the season's dates and places in mid-November each year, and they can change with the weather.

From TPWD: Stocking Public Waters, TPWD: Neighborhood Fishin' and TPWD news release: Rainbow Trout Stocking Returns to Texas Waters Nov. 26 (20 November 2025).

The TPWD trout stocking schedule

Every place TPWD plans to stock trout this winter, with its city, the total number of trout, each planned date and the hatchery delivering them. Search it by lake or city. A place's total is spread across its dates, not stocked on each. A star marks a Neighborhood Fishin' pond, stocked often all season, and the hatcheries' phone numbers are under the table.

Open the Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule
  • Stocking Reports: Rivers, Small Lakes and Ponds: A stocking history for each river, small lake and pond TPWD stocks, by species, year, number and size of fish. It counts fish by year, not by date. Use it to see whether a water gets trout at all, and the schedule for when.

From TPWD: Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule, TPWD: Stocking Public Waters, TPWD: Stocking Reports, Rivers, Small Lakes and Ponds, TPWD: Community Fishing Lakes and TPWD: Stocking History for Canyon Tailrace.

When Texas stocks trout

Winter rainbow trout

For 2025-26, TPWD planned 335,048 rainbow trout from 26 November to 6 March. The stocked waters include dozens of city and county park ponds and the ponds at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. TPWD also stocks the Guadalupe below Canyon Lake, the Brazos below Possum Kingdom Lake, parts of the Frio and South Llano rivers, and the Clear Fork of the Trinity. Because the trout cannot survive the warm water after winter in most of Texas, TPWD encourages anglers to keep their limit of 5.

Neighborhood Fishin' lakes

TPWD runs 18 Neighborhood Fishin' lakes in parks in Amarillo, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Angelo, San Antonio and Wichita Falls. In winter they are stocked with trout every two to four weeks.

Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake

The Guadalupe below Canyon Dam often stays cool enough for trout all year, and it is considered the southernmost trout stream in North America. The Guadalupe River chapter of Trout Unlimited stocks it too, usually with larger trout than TPWD's. In 2025-26 TPWD stocked close to 20,000 rainbow trout there, weekly from early December through late January, at Guadalupe Park below the dam, the third and fourth crossings on River Road, and Camp Huaco Springs. That winter it also leased Camp Huaco Springs, nearly half a mile of bank, for free angler access from 5 December to 7 March.

From TPWD news release: Rainbow Trout Stocking Returns to Texas Waters Nov. 26 (20 November 2025), TPWD: Neighborhood Fishin' and TPWD news release: Public Access Lease Opening for Guadalupe River Trout Fishing (1 December 2025).

Rules on stocked water

  • Anglers 17 and older need a fishing license with a freshwater fishing endorsement. Anglers under 17 need no license.
  • In a Texas state park you need no license or endorsement to fish from a bank, dock or pier, once you pay the entry fee. Bag and length limits still apply.
  • The statewide limit is 5 trout a day with no minimum length, except on parts of the Guadalupe River.
  • A community fishing lake is any public pond or lake of 75 acres or less inside a city or a park. There the limit is 5 fish a day of all species together, only 1 of them a black bass, and you may fish with no more than two poles. The two-pole limit also applies on a dock, pier or jetty in a state park.
  • On the Guadalupe from 800 yards below the Canyon Dam release to the east Highway 306 bridge, trout from 12 to 18 inches go back. You may keep 5, only one 18 inches or longer, caught on artificial lures.
  • From that bridge down to the second crossing on River Road, the limit is one trout of at least 18 inches, also on artificial lures.

From TPWD: Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule, TPWD news release: Rainbow Trout Stocking Returns to Texas Waters Nov. 26 (20 November 2025), TPWD: Free Fishing in State Parks, TPWD: Fishing Regulations for Community Fishing Lakes and TPWD: Fishing Regulations for Guadalupe River.

How to hear about a stocking

  • Each winter's dates and places go up on TPWD's Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule in mid-November.
  • For the Neighborhood Fishin' lakes, text NF to 1-855-784-3034 for updates by text.
  • For a question about a stocking, call the hatchery delivering it; the schedule lists each one's number, and TPWD Inland Fisheries in Austin is (512) 389-4444.

From TPWD: Stocking Public Waters, TPWD: Neighborhood Fishin' and TPWD: Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule.

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • At a city or park pond, the limit of 5 counts every species together. Keep 5 trout and you are done for the day, catfish included.
  • Stocking times are not published. Most trout go in between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., and a date can move for the weather, so check the schedule the day you go.
  • Much of the Guadalupe below Canyon Lake is reached through camps and resorts that charge for river access. Guadalupe Park, run by the US Army Corps of Engineers, is free all year.
  • The special Guadalupe rules start 800 yards below the dam and run to the second crossing on River Road, so a trout you may keep at one bend can be one you must release at the next.

From TPWD: Fishing Regulations for Community Fishing Lakes, TPWD: Rainbow Trout Stocking Schedule, TPWD news release: Rainbow Trout Stocking Returns to Texas Waters Nov. 26 (20 November 2025), TPWD: Guadalupe River Trout Fishing and TPWD news release: Public Access Lease Opening for Guadalupe River Trout Fishing (1 December 2025).

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

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.