Zone 6 Fishing Regulations
Zone-wide open seasons for Fisheries Management Zone 6, from the 2026 Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary.
Zone 6 is northwestern Ontario, and Lake Nipigon, the Nipigon River and Lac des Mille Lacs all sit inside it. It reads differently from the southern zones: twelve of the seventeen species listed here are open all year, and the dated seasons are the exception rather than the rule. Ten named waters carry their own regulations on top of the zone-wide seasons below.
These are the zone-wide seasons. Individual lakes and rivers in Zone 6 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 6 page, which is where you should check before you fish.
Zone 6 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 | Open all year |
| Brook trout | fourth Saturday in April to Labour Day2026 season: April 25 to Labour Day |
| Brown trout | Open all year |
| Channel catfish | Open all year |
| Crappie | Open all year |
| Lake sturgeon | Closed all year |
| Lake trout | January 1 to September 30 |
| Lake whitefish | Open all year |
| Largemouth and smallmouth bass combined | Open all year |
| 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 April 14 and third Saturday in May to December 31 |
| Yellow perch | Open all year |
Worth knowing about Zone 6
Non-Canadian residents camping on Crown land must follow conservation fishing licence limits.
Rainbow smelt may not be used as bait or possessed for use as bait.
Waters with their own rules
10 waters or areas in Zone 6 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:
- Arrow River
- Jessie Lake
- Lac des Mille Lacs including Casino, Cushing, Panache, and Pike Lakes and their connected waters
- Lake Helen
- Lake Nipigon
- Little Savanne River
- McIntyre River
- Nipigon River
- Polly Lake
- Savanne River
See the waterbody exceptions for Zone 6 →
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 6. 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.
