When to fish without a license in Indiana, and maybe catch a trout
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Spring, summer and fall will include days when people can go to their favorite fishing holes without a license in the Hoosier state.
May 7, June 3-4 and Sept. 23 will be Indiana’s Free Fishing Days. That’s means a fishing license nor a trout/salmon stamp are needed to fish the state’s public waters.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Fish and Wildlife even stocks some public waters each year.
Trout are stocked at Delaware Lake at Fort Harrison State Park in Indianapolis, Garvin Park Lake in Evansville, Shoaff Park Pond and Spy Creek Run in Franke Park in Fort Wayne, Pinhook Lake in South Bend, Johnson Lake in Madison, and Maple Avenue Lake in Terre Haute.
The state has posted its 2023 trout stocking plan and its 2023 catfish stocking plan so anglers will know where to go.
A quick note, though: Indiana’s daily bag limit is five trout, and no more than one of those can be a brown trout. Some extra limits on trout exist in Franklin and LaGrange counties.
Meanwhile, newcomers looking for fishing holes can find an interactive map of public waters for fishing in Indiana.
As the Division of Fish and Wildlife recently posted on Facebook, “So get out on the water and catch a memory! And maybe some dinner.”