Ohio · Trout and salmon, including steelhead
Trout and salmon, including steelhead size limit in Ohio
You can keep one today — within these limits
Inland lakes, rivers and ponds (statewide rule)
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 5 | per person per day, all trout and salmon combined |
Five a day, no minimum size, and that also covers the rainbow trout ODNR releases into public ponds each spring. A handful of inland streams run tighter rules - the Mad River and the Richland County stretch of the Clear Fork sit at two fish and 12 inches.
Lake Erie and the full length of its tributaries (May 16 to August 31)
Closed today| Size limit | 12 inches and up | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 5 | per person per day, all trout and salmon combined |
Outside May 16 to August 31 the limit drops to two fish a day Reopens after May 15. The numbers above are what applies when it is open.
Through the summer the Lake Erie limit matches the inland five, but with a 12-inch minimum. Note the reach: this rule runs the entire length of every Lake Erie tributary, not just the lake itself.
Lake Erie and the full length of its tributaries (September 1 to May 15)
Open today| Size limit | 12 inches and up | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 2 | per person per day, all trout and salmon combined |
Closes each year Between May 16 and August 31 the limit rises to five fish a day
Two a day for the steelhead run and through the winter - the limit tightens on September 1, right as the fish start moving into the tributaries. Brook trout may not be kept at all from the Ashtabula, Chagrin, Conneaut and Grand rivers or their feeders.
What we left out on purpose
- The Ohio River is deliberately left out of this page. Ohio shares it with Kentucky and West Virginia under two separate interstate agreements, and the rules differ between the western and eastern units - walleye carry a 14-inch minimum in the western unit and none in the eastern one, on facing pages of the same booklet. Those limits are real but the question of which agency's rules apply to which angler is not something we were able to verify cleanly, so we publish nothing rather than half of it.
- Crappie, bluegill and northern pike appear nowhere in Ohio's statewide table. That is not the same as saying they are unlimited - ODNR simply lists no statewide size or bag limit for them, while setting limits on individual named waters. Check the water-specific list for the lake you are fishing.
- The muskellunge entry says no statewide minimum length because that is what the regulations booklet states, in both its English and Spanish editions, and Ohio's Administrative Code carries no statewide muskellunge length rule either. Many other sources quote 30 inches statewide; that figure belongs to the Ohio River and Pymatuning Lake.
- Walleye and yellow perch limits for Lake Erie come from a separate ODNR sheet rather than the main booklet, which defers them with the words 'to be announced late April'. ODNR resets these numbers every spring, so they are the first thing to re-check each April.
Other species limits in Ohio
Where to try today
- Lake Erie 6/10 · Biting