Washington Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

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

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) planned to stock more than 15.4 million trout and kokanee in over 500 waters in 2026. Most were small fish left to grow in the lake. The ones you can catch right away are 2.13 million catchable trout, about 11 inches long on opening day, and more than 157,000 jumbo trout of a pound or more. Most of the catchable trout go in during spring, for the lowland lakes opener on the fourth Saturday in April. A smaller round goes in during fall, ending with jumbo trout for Black Friday, and a few lakes are stocked through the winter. WDFW posts what it has stocked, lake by lake, in its catchable trout plant reports. Its yearly plan gives each lake a month but not a date, because the hatcheries set the dates.

From WDFW: Statewide hatchery trout and kokanee stocking plan, WDFW: Kress Lake, WDFW: WDFW opens lowland lakes April 25; Trout Derby returns with 900 prizes (14 April 2026), WDFW: 2026 Statewide Trout and Kokanee Stocking Plan (PDF), WDFW: Get outside on Black Friday with statewide trout fishing opportunities (13 November 2025) and WDFW: Catchable trout plant reports.

The WDFW trout stocking schedule

Every catchable trout WDFW stocked in the last 30 days, lake by lake, with a search of all of this year's plants and an archive of earlier years. It shows only catchable fish, three to the pound or larger, jumbo and brood trout included; fry and fingerlings are in the stocking plan. Each row gives the lake and its county, the stock date, the species, the number of fish and their size in fish per pound, where a smaller number means a bigger fish: 2 to the pound is about 11 inches, 1 about 13 and 0.5 about 17. New reports go up Monday through Thursday.

Open the Catchable trout plant reports
  • Statewide hatchery trout and kokanee stocking plan: The year's plan, county by county: which lakes and streams WDFW means to stock, with which trout, how many and in which month. It is written early in the year, and some plants change. Open the year's PDF and find the lake under its county. The season column says when the lake is open: OD is the fourth Saturday in April and YR is all year. The month is as close as the plan gets.

From WDFW: Catchable trout plant reports, WDFW: Explanation of size of catchable trout plants, WDFW: Statewide hatchery trout and kokanee stocking plan and WDFW: 2026 Statewide Trout and Kokanee Stocking Plan (PDF).

When Washington stocks trout

Spring stocking and the lowland lakes opener

Spring is the main season. WDFW says rainbow trout fishing is generally best then, when thousands of fish are stocked statewide. East of the Cascades it starts in March. More than two dozen Eastern Washington lakes open March 1, and in Benton, Franklin, Kittitas and Yakima counties, where many lakes are open all year, WDFW usually starts stocking catchable trout in the first week of March. Hundreds of lakes open on the fourth Saturday in April, April 25 in 2026. For that opener WDFW stocks about 2.1 million catchable trout of 11 to 13 inches, and in the two months before it in 2026 it stocked more than 157,000 jumbo trout averaging over 14 inches. In 2026 WDFW's Trout Derby runs from the opener to October 31: trout with a green tag near the dorsal fin, in more than 100 stocked lakes, win a prize from a nearby business, and there is no fee to take part.

Fall stocking and Black Friday

Some lakes are stocked again in fall, when trout that escaped the spring harvest come back to the shallows as the water cools. In fall 2025 WDFW stocked nearly 230,000 trout in 67 lakes. Some lakes get catchable brown and tiger trout in early fall, as Roses Lake near Manson does. For Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, WDFW stocks jumbo rainbow trout in lakes near towns. In 2025 that was nearly 65,000 trout of up to three pounds and 17 inches, in 25 lakes, all stocked before November 28.

Winter stocking at year-round lakes

A few lakes that are open all year are stocked through the winter. Kress Lake in Cowlitz County gets catchable rainbow and brown trout from January to May and again in November, and WDFW says it offers excellent trout fishing from late fall to late spring. In Clark County, the 2026 plan put rainbow trout in Battle Ground Lake from January to May and in November and December, and in Klineline Pond from January to June and in November and December.

From WDFW: Kress Lake, WDFW: Many Eastern Washington lakes open March 1 for early-season fishing (19 February 2026), WDFW: WDFW opens lowland lakes April 25; Trout Derby returns with 900 prizes (14 April 2026), WDFW: Get outside on Black Friday with statewide trout fishing opportunities (13 November 2025), WDFW: Roses Lake and WDFW: 2026 Statewide Trout and Kokanee Stocking Plan (PDF).

Rules on stocked water

  • Everyone 16 and older needs a Washington fishing license, and anglers 15 and younger fish free. In 2026 an annual freshwater license is $39.95 for residents and $115.85 for nonresidents, and it includes the Vehicle Access Pass.
  • Statewide you may keep 5 trout a day from lakes, ponds and reservoirs, any size, and 2 from rivers and streams, where a wild trout must be at least 8 inches. Five is the most in a day, wherever they come from. Brook trout and lake trout have no daily limit under the statewide rules.
  • Lakes, ponds and reservoirs are open all year unless the rules list them otherwise, and many are listed to open the fourth Saturday in April and close October 31. Rivers and streams open the Saturday before Memorial Day and close October 31.
  • The 2026-27 rules pamphlet runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. Check WDFW's emergency rule changes for the lake you mean to fish as well.
  • Parking at a WDFW water access area takes the Vehicle Access Pass that comes with an annual license, or a Discover Pass. State parks and Department of Natural Resources land take a Discover Pass.

From WDFW: WDFW opens lowland lakes April 25; Trout Derby returns with 900 prizes (14 April 2026), WDFW: Fishing license types and fees, WAC 220-310-090: Game fish possession limits and size limits, WAC 220-310-080: Game fish seasons, general rules, WAC 220-312-050: Freshwater exceptions to statewide rules, eastside and WDFW: Fishing regulations.

How to hear about a stocking

  • New plant reports are posted Monday through Thursday, all year.
  • WDFW announces the big stockings in news releases: the March 1 eastern lakes in February, the lowland lakes opener in April and the Black Friday lakes in November.
  • WDFW's free Fish Washington app has the current rules for every lake, river and stream, emergency changes included.

From WDFW: Catchable trout plant reports, WDFW: Many Eastern Washington lakes open March 1 for early-season fishing (19 February 2026), WDFW: WDFW opens lowland lakes April 25; Trout Derby returns with 900 prizes (14 April 2026), WDFW: Get outside on Black Friday with statewide trout fishing opportunities (13 November 2025) and WDFW: Fish Washington mobile app.

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • A stocked lake is not always an open one. WDFW stocks some lakes before they open, and the rules, not the stocking reports, decide when you can fish.
  • Four eastern lakes are open only from the day after Thanksgiving to March 31, and all four were stocked for Black Friday 2025: Fourth of July Lake on the Adams and Lincoln county line, Hog Canyon Lake in Spokane County, and Hatch and Williams lakes in Stevens County.
  • A Washington license runs from April 1 to March 31, so one bought for fall or winter fishing runs out before the April opener.
  • A lake in the plan is not always one you can reach. The 2026 plan marks some lakes where public access is not secured, and WDFW stopped stocking Downs Lake in 2026 until the public can get to it again.
  • Blue-green algae can be in a lake even in November, so check your county health department for advisories before you go.

From WDFW: Catchable trout plant reports, WAC 220-312-050: Freshwater exceptions to statewide rules, eastside, WDFW: Get outside on Black Friday with statewide trout fishing opportunities (13 November 2025), WAC 220-220-010: Licensing definitions, WDFW: 2026 Statewide Trout and Kokanee Stocking Plan (PDF) and WDFW: Many Eastern Washington lakes open March 1 for early-season fishing (19 February 2026).

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 · 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.