Inland lakes, rivers and ponds (statewide rule)
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 30 | per person per day |
No minimum size inland, thirty a day.
Lake Erie West Zone - Ohio waters west of longitude 82 degrees 30 minutes
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 30 | per person per day |
The western basin carries the most generous perch limit on the lake. The boundary is a line of longitude, not a landmark - the regulations map puts it near Huron Pier Lighthouse, but what binds is the coordinate. Whatever mix of zones you fish, thirty perch a day is the overall ceiling.
Lake Erie Central Zone - between longitude 82 degrees 30 minutes and 81 degrees 20 minutes
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 10 | per person per day |
Ten a day - a third of the western limit, and the tightest perch rule in the state. Know which side of the line you are on before you count fish.
Lake Erie East Zone - Ohio waters east of longitude 81 degrees 20 minutes
Open year-round| Size limit | No size limit stated | total length |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bag | 20 | per person per day |
Twenty a day east of the line the map marks near Fairport Harbor Lighthouse. ODNR publishes GPS waypoints for the zone boundaries in Garmin, Lowrance, Humminbird and GPX format.
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