Connecticut fishing rules

Legal gear

• Hooks and barbless rules

  The 2026 inland guide does not set a statewide barbless rule. Each angling line may use any combination of hooks, flies, or lures, and no more than three of those hooks may be baited. A barbless hook includes a manufactured barb that has been bent down, broken off, or otherwise made ineffective. Wild Trout Management Area Class 1 waters require a single barbless hook on an artificial lure or fly and are catch-and-release for trout. Striped bass, in both inland and marine rules, require an inline circle hook when fishing with bait. That circle-hook rule does not apply to artificial lures. In the marine district, the circle-hook rule is the one printed on the saltwater species page.

• Rods per angler

  Angling is hook and line that the angler attends in person. No more than three lines, with or without rods, may be used at one time, except in Trout Management Areas, Wild Trout Management Areas, Trout Parks, sea-run trout streams, and Trophy Trout Streams, where the maximum is two lines. Ice fishing allows up to six tip-ups, floats, or hand-held jigs in combination, and each device may have no more than three baited hooks, ice flies, or artificial lures in combination. Ice-fishing devices must be attended and must carry the user's name and address. Set lines are prohibited in the inland district. A gaff may not be used to land a fish in the inland district.

• Nets

  Cast nets may not be used to take fish or bait in the inland district, except in waters designated as tidal waters and tributaries. Bait species may be taken with a bait seine no longer than 15 feet and no deeper than 4 feet, a bait trap no longer than 20 inches and no wider than 15 inches, and an umbrella net no larger than 4 feet by 4 feet. Seines may not be used in lakes and ponds except lakes the agency has opened to commercial bait taking. A scoop net hoop may not be more than 36 inches across, and the bag may not be more than 36 inches deep. Metal or stiff plastic mesh is prohibited on a scoop net. Fishing is not allowed within 250 feet of a fishway.

• Snagging

  Snagging or snatching means hooking a fish anywhere other than the mouth. It is prohibited in all Inland District waters for all species, and a fish taken that way must be released immediately. The exception in the guide is tidal waters and tributaries, where menhaden, alewives, and blueback herring may be taken by snagging. Taking anadromous alewife and blueback herring is prohibited. The marine species page does not list snagging as a legal method for striped bass.

• Spearing and bow

  Inland sport fishing is limited to angling, bow-and-arrow fishing, ice fishing, snagging or snatching, spearing, scoop netting, and taking by hand. Spearing is a pointed instrument propelled only by hand. Common carp, bowfin, tench, American eel, white sucker, and sea lamprey may be speared in streams or stream sections that are not stocked with trout. Spearing is prohibited in lakes and ponds. Underwater spearfishing and spear guns are prohibited in the entire Inland District. Bow-and-arrow fishing uses a compound bow, longbow, recurve, or crossbow. Arrows need barbed heads and must be attached to the bow or to a reel on the bow. Fish taken by bow count toward the possession limit and may not be released. The same nongame list may be taken by bow in lakes and ponds and in streams not stocked with trout. On listed waters, the carp bow bag is 12, and no more than 3 of those may be over 30 inches. The marine regulations sign says spearfishing is subject to all sport-fishing restrictions, and the saltwater species page says striped bass may not be speared in the sense that the freshwater page lists legal methods as angling and ice fishing only for that species. The marine page's striped bass methods are angling, with the circle-hook rule.

• Bait and live transport

  Bait is any animal, listed bait species, fish eggs, insect, or vegetable, or parts of them, living or dead, used with a hook, plus the manufactured scented baits the definition allows. Black bass, chain pickerel, northern pike, trout, salmon, carp, and goldfish may not be used as bait. Legal bait fish include the shiners, dace, minnows, suckers, killifish, silversides, and sand lance named in the guide, plus frogs other than the northern leopard frog and crayfish other than rusty crayfish. Invasive species are not legal bait. A liberation permit is required to stock live fish or eggs into any pond, lake, or stream. Releasing aquarium fish is illegal. Importing live fish or eggs requires a permit. Some posted lakes prohibit taking, using, or possessing fish as bait.

Bag and size limits

These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.

• Trout and kokanee

  Brook, brown, rainbow, tiger, lake, and other trout hybrids: 9-inch minimum statewide as of January 1, 2026, unless a water is catch-and-release or has a stricter minimum. The daily creel is 5 from 6:00 a.m. on the second Saturday in April through the last day of February, and 0 from March 1 until 6:00 a.m. on that second Saturday. In 2026 the second Saturday in April was April 11. Kokanee uses the same open and catch-and-release dates, with a daily creel of 5 in the open period. Many lakes, trout parks, and wild-trout streams replace this default. A Trout and Salmon Stamp is required to keep trout or salmon and to fish the designated trout and salmon areas. Bass-management lakes and other named waters are not covered by the statewide line.

• Largemouth and smallmouth bass

  The daily creel is 6 in aggregate. On lakes, ponds, and the Connecticut River the minimum is 12 inches. On rivers and streams other than the listed Housatonic reach there is no minimum. The Housatonic River from the Massachusetts line downstream to the Bleachery Dam in New Milford is catch-and-release only, year-round. Bass Management lakes replace these numbers. The species page says to check the lake and pond page for those waters.

• Walleye, northern pike, and chain pickerel

  Walleye: 18-inch minimum, 2 a day, open year-round, by angling or ice fishing. Northern pike and tiger muskie: 26-inch minimum and 2 a day on waters other than Bantam Lake, Little Pond, the Connecticut River, and Lake Lillinonah, which the species page excludes from that default. Chain pickerel: 15-inch minimum and 6 a day on lakes and ponds; rivers and streams have no minimum and no daily creel. Chain Pickerel Management Lakes replace the lake default. The 2026 guide sets Lake Wononskopomuc, East Twin Lake, and West Twin Lake at 1 chain pickerel a day and a 22-inch minimum.

• Catfish, panfish, and carp

  Channel and white catfish: 6 in aggregate, no statewide minimum, except Community Fishing Waters, where the aggregate is 3. The 2026 guide sets Wharton Brook Park Pond (Allen Pond) at 3 channel catfish. Brown and yellow bullhead: no daily creel and no minimum. Panfish — calico bass (black crappie), sunfish, yellow perch, and rock bass — have no statewide minimum and no daily creel. White perch in the Connecticut River, its coves and tributaries, and tidally influenced rivers have a 7-inch minimum and a creel of 30. Common carp: 5 a day, and only 1 of those 5 may be over 30 inches, with a higher bow-and-arrow bag on listed waters. Striped bass in inland waters follow the marine slot: 28 inches to less than 31 inches, 1 a day, circle hook required with bait.

Sources

• DEEP inland species regulations
• DEEP fisheries licenses and permits
• DEEP 2026 freshwater fishing guide
• DEEP marine species regulations