Zone 10 Fishing Regulations
Zone-wide open seasons for Fisheries Management Zone 10, from the 2026 Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary.
Zone 10 is a large northeastern zone taking in country through the Sudbury and Algoma districts. It carries a zone-wide bass rule that the season table alone does not tell you — read the note under the table before you plan a spring bass trip here.
These are the zone-wide seasons. Individual lakes and rivers in Zone 10 can carry their own rules on top of them, and this page does not list size limits or catch limits — those are on the official Zone 10 page, which is where you should check before you fish.
Zone 10 open seasons
Season dates only. Where the regulation is written as a rule (“third Saturday in June”), this year’s actual dates are worked out from it rather than typed in, so they cannot go stale.
| Species | Open season |
|---|---|
| Atlantic salmon | January 1 to September 30 |
| Brook trout | January 1 to September 30 |
| Brown trout | Open all year |
| Channel catfish | Open all year |
| Crappie | Open all year |
| Lake sturgeon | Closed all year |
| Lake trout | January 1 to Labour Day |
| Lake whitefish | Open all year |
| Largemouth and smallmouth bass combined | third Saturday in June to November 302026 season: June 20 to November 30 |
| Muskellunge | third Saturday in June to December 152026 season: June 20 to December 15 |
| Northern pike | Open all year |
| Pacific salmon | Open all year |
| Rainbow trout | Open all year |
| Splake | Open all year |
| Sunfish | Open all year |
| Walleye and sauger combined | January 1 to the third Sunday in March and third Saturday in May to December 31 |
| Yellow perch | Open all year |
Worth knowing about Zone 10
All waters north of Highway 17 and all waters west of where the east bank of the Serpent River crosses Highway 17 are open year-round for largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Waters with their own rules
21 waters or areas in Zone 10 carry regulations that differ from the zone-wide seasons above. If you are fishing one of these, the zone table is not the whole story:
- geographic townships of Schembri and Scriven in the Territorial District of Sudbury
- geographic townships of Way-White, Wlasy, Bracci and Tupper in the Territorial District of Algoma
- Biscotasi Lake
- Blue Jay Creek
- Carol Lake
- East Goulais River
- Edna Lake
- French River
- Garden River
- Gong Lake
- Goulais River
- Greenhorn Lake
- Kirkpatrick Lake
- Lake 21
- Manitoulin Island
- McGovern Lake
- Pancake Lake
- Solo Creek
- Sorley Lake
- Spanish River
- Thor Lake
See the waterbody exceptions for Zone 10 →
What this page does not cover
Size limits, catch and possession limits, and the waterbody-specific exceptions are deliberately left off. They change from year to year and from lake to lake, and a number copied onto a personal website is exactly the kind of thing that goes out of date quietly and costs somebody a fine. The seasons above are the zone-wide rules; everything else belongs on the official page.
Always check the official summary before you fish. This page is a starting point, not a substitute for it — and you need a valid Ontario fishing licence.
Seasons transcribed from the 2026 Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary — Fisheries Management Zone 10. Rules last checked against the official page on September 14, 2026. Opening dates are calculated from the regulation, not typed in, so they stay correct as the years roll over.
