Zone 18 Fishing Regulations
Zone-wide open seasons for Fisheries Management Zone 18, from the 2026 Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary.
Zone 18 covers eastern Ontario — the Rideau chain and the country around it, with waters like Big Rideau, Newboro and Opinicon inside its boundaries. The table below is the zone-wide season for each species: the rules that apply unless a particular lake or river carries its own exception.
These are the zone-wide seasons. Individual lakes and rivers in Zone 18 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 18 page, which is where you should check before you fish.
Zone 18 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 | Closed all year |
| Brook trout | Open all year |
| Brown trout | Open all year |
| Channel catfish | Open all year |
| Crappie | Open all year |
| Lake sturgeon | Closed all year |
| Lake trout | fourth Saturday in May to September 82026 season: May 23 to September 8 |
| Lake whitefish | Open all year |
| Largemouth and smallmouth bass combined | third Saturday in June to December 152026 season: June 20 to December 15 |
| Muskellunge | 1st Saturday in June to December 152026 season: June 6 to December 15 |
| Northern pike | January 1 to March 31 and second Saturday in May to December 31 |
| 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 March 1 and second Saturday in May to December 31 |
| Yellow perch | Open all year |
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year to year and from lake to lake, and a number copied onto a personal website is exactly the kind of thing that goes out of date quietly and costs somebody a fine.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 18. 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.
