Vermont Trout Stocking Report 2026

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

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department (VT Fish and Wildlife) stocks catchable yearling trout each spring, once the ice is off and the runoff has passed, in lakes, ponds, streams and rivers where wild trout are scarce. Its 2026 plan was 265,300 yearlings and smolts for inland waters and 315,500 for Lake Champlain. Bigger two-year-old trophy trout go into 9 river sections and 36 lakes and ponds from late April through May, and in 2026, for the third year running, a fall trophy stocking went into four ponds and one stream in southern Vermont.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Vermont's Trout Season Opens April 11 (3 April 2026), VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Plan, VT Fish and Wildlife: Trophy Trout and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking in Select Lakes and Streams (5 October 2026).

The VT Fish and Wildlife trout stocking report

The record of what has actually been stocked, with the date and number for each water, year by year. Each stocking is entered within 48 hours. Leave every field blank for the full list, or type part of a town or water name, and choose Completed Stockings to see only what has gone in.

Open the VT Fish and Wildlife Fish Stocking Search
  • Fish Stocking Plan: The year's proposed plan, which the site's menu calls the Fish Stocking Schedule: which trophy streams get fish in which weeks, the trophy lakes and ponds, and the yearlings and smolts by species. Its dates are tentative.
  • Trophy Trout Fishing Opportunities: The 9 trophy river sections and 36 lakes and ponds, each reach described, with maps that give directions to each.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Trophy Trout, VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Plan and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Search.

When Vermont stocks trout

Spring yearlings

Catchable yearlings go out once the ice has melted and the spring runoff has passed, into waters where wild trout are scarce, and the record fills in as they do.

Spring trophy trout

Trophy waters are stocked from late April through the end of May, the rivers usually twice, several weeks apart, with two-year-old trout, some over 18 inches.

Fall trophy trout

In 2026 the department planned more than 2,000 brook and rainbow trout averaging 13 to 14 inches for Knapp Ponds 1 and 2 in Cavendish, Lakes Paran and Shaftsbury in Bennington and East Creek in Rutland, from mid-October, so there is some harvest before the season turns catch and release in November.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Vermont's Trout Season Opens April 11 (3 April 2026), VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Plan, VT Fish and Wildlife: Trophy Trout and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking in Select Lakes and Streams (5 October 2026).

Rules on stocked water

  • The open season for trout runs from the second Saturday in April to 31 October, trophy waters included. Outside it most rivers and streams stay open for catch and release: trout go straight back, only artificial flies and lures are allowed, and live bait of any kind is illegal.
  • Trophy trout waters allow two trout a day, with no minimum length.
  • In lakes and ponds, trout may be taken through the ice from 1 January to 15 March on most waters, and the department stocks its fall ponds so anglers can keep catching trout right through the winter.
  • Some waters, the Seasonally Closed Waters, close to all fishing from 1 November until the Friday before the second Saturday in April, so check the list before fishing a stocked pond in winter.
  • A water's own special regulations, in the Index of Rivers and Streams, always override the general ones.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Year-Round Trout Fishing, VT Fish and Wildlife: Trophy Trout, VT Fish and Wildlife: Vermont's Trout Season Opens April 11 (3 April 2026), VT Fish and Wildlife: Lakes with Restrictions to Ice Fishing and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fall Trout Stocking in Select Lakes and Streams (5 October 2026).

How to hear about a stocking

  • Completed stockings go into the Fish Stocking Search within 48 hours, and in spring the department updates it several times a week.
  • For stocking questions the plan gives 802-467-3660, the Bald Hill fish culture station.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Plan, VT Fish and Wildlife: Vermont's Trout Season Opens April 11 (3 April 2026) and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking.

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • The site's Fish Stocking Schedule is the year's proposed plan. What has actually gone in, and when, is in the Fish Stocking Search.
  • Dates in the plan are tentative and move with the weather and the state of the streams.

From VT Fish and Wildlife: Trophy Trout and VT Fish and Wildlife: Fish Stocking Plan.

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 · Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Lake Trout · Landlocked Salmon

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.