Montana · Combined trout (brown, rainbow, golden, cutthroat and grayling)
Combined trout (brown, rainbow, golden, cutthroat and grayling) size limit in Montana
You can keep one today — within these limits
Western District rivers and streams (Flathead Lake area)
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 5 | per person per day, brown/rainbow/golden trout and grayling combined, only 1 over 14 inches; cutthroat trout counted separately at 3 a day, none over 12 inches |
| Possession | 5 | total you may hold |
Bull trout may not be targeted anywhere in the Western District and must be released immediately if caught.
Bitterroot River, confluence of East and West Forks to Woodside Bridge FAS
Open today| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 3 | per person per day, rainbow and brown trout combined, only 1 over 14 inches; cutthroat trout must be released |
| Possession | 3 | total you may hold |
Closes each year Extended season (December 1 – third Saturday in May) is catch-and-release only for all trout, artificial lures/maggots/aquatic insects only. The 3-fish general-season rule below applies from the third Saturday in May through November 30
Well below the Western District's standard 5-fish rule, and cutthroat may not be kept at all on this stretch — the segment matching this site's tracked location on the Bitterroot.
Central District rivers and streams (Bighorn River, Gallatin River)
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 5 | per person per day, only 1 over 18 inches and only 1 may be a cutthroat trout; arctic grayling must be released immediately |
| Possession | 5 | total you may hold |
Neither the Bighorn nor the Gallatin carries its own trout override — both run on the plain Central District standard, a genuine finding in itself given the Bighorn's reputation as a trophy tailwater.
Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park boundary to Pine Creek Bridge
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 5 | per person per day, rainbow and brown trout combined, only 1 over 18 inches; cutthroat trout must be released |
| Possession | 5 | total you may hold |
Same Central District standard bag as the Bighorn and Gallatin, but with a local override: cutthroat trout may not be kept at all on this stretch.
Madison River, Lyons Bridge to Ennis Bridge
Closed to harvest| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | — | per person per day |
Catch-and-immediate-release for trout, artificial lures only (anglers 14 or younger may keep 1 rainbow trout of any size on the Varney-to-Ennis-Bridge half of this stretch). This site's tracked location sits right at Varney Bridge, the boundary between the two adjoining catch-and-release segments that make up this stretch. The numbers above are what applies when it is open.
Zero — one of Montana's most famous dry-fly stretches runs entirely catch-and-release, artificial lures only, no bait.
What we left out on purpose
- Bighorn Lake (a separate water from the Bighorn River this site tracks) carries its own sauger/walleye numbers (6 combined daily, only 3 may be sauger) — not modelled here since this site follows the river, not the lake.
- Gallatin River carries a boat-fishing closure between the Yellowstone National Park boundary and the East Gallatin River, and a fixed general season (third Saturday in May – November 30) on the stretch from Porcupine Creek Road to the West Fork — gear/access rules rather than size or bag numbers, not modelled in this schema.
- The Madison River's Lyons-Bridge-to-Ennis-Bridge stretch is actually two adjoining catch-and-release segments (Lyons–Varney and Varney–Ennis) with a near-identical but not byte-for-byte identical rule (one restricts all trout, the other only rainbow). This site's tracked coordinate sits almost exactly at Varney Bridge, the boundary between them — both are described together rather than forcing a guess about which side of the bridge the coordinate falls on.
- Channel catfish, shovelnose sturgeon, tiger muskie and walleye/sauger are not modelled for these six waters because none of the six carries its own number for them and none is a species this site's water reports actually target.
- Montana's hundreds of further named-water exceptions beyond the six waters this site tracks are not modelled — the same restraint used for Colorado's, Kansas's, Michigan's and Minnesota's named-water exceptions.
Other species limits in Montana
Where to try today
- Bighorn River 7/10 · Biting
- Bitterroot River 6/10 · Biting
- Canyon Ferry Lake 5/10 · Picky
- Flathead Lake 5/10 · Picky
- Gallatin River 6/10 · Biting