Ontario Bass Season End Dates by Zone (2026)

Every year the same thing happens in November: someone drives two hours to a favourite bass lake, only to learn the season closed last weekend. This guide lists when bass season ends in each Ontario Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ) for 2026, and flags the places where the answer is not "November 30".

Everything below comes from the zone pages of the Ontario Fishing Regulations Summary on ontario.ca, which we opened on October 27, 2026. These are the zone-wide rules for 2026. Individual waterbodies can have exceptions, and the 2027 summary will replace all of this (it is normally published in early December). The ontario.ca summary is the legal authority; this page is a plain-language guide, not legal advice.

The short version

For most of southern and central Ontario, the zone-wide bass season for largemouth and smallmouth ends November 30. A handful of zones run later, and a few don't close at all. Zone-wide dates in 2026:

| Zone-wide bass season ends | FMZs (2026) | |---|---| | November 30 | 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19 | | December 15 | 17, 18 | | December 31 | 20 (largemouth and smallmouth differ, see below) | | Open all year | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (with size and limit rules, see below) | | Special pattern | 11 (open January 1 to the third Sunday in March, then third Saturday in May to December 31) |

FMZ 1 is not in the table because it has no bass season at all: its page lists largemouth and smallmouth bass among the species that are not present in the zone and are closed to fishing all year.

Not sure which zone you are in? The ontario.ca summary links an interactive zone map (Fisheries Management Zones map), and our zone-by-zone table links to a page for each zone, for example FMZ 16. Zones near the boundary need care: a lake or river on the edge may belong to the zone next door, and some waterbodies are listed as exceptions.

Zone by zone

The November 30 group

In FMZ 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 19 the zone-wide bass season ends on November 30. The opening dates differ, which matters if you are planning next year:

FMZ 10: third Saturday in June to November 30 (limit: six on a sport licence, three on a conservation licence, a higher conservation limit than most other zones)
FMZ 12: Friday before the fourth Saturday in June to November 30
FMZ 13, 14, 15, 16, 19: fourth Saturday in June to November 30

In 2026 the third Saturday in June was June 20 and the fourth was June 27, so a "fourth Saturday" zone opened a week after a "third Saturday" zone. FMZ 16 includes Lake Simcoe. The FMZ 16 page does list Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and the Trent Canal System in its waterbody exceptions, but only for lake herring, lake trout, lake whitefish, muskellunge and yellow perch. Bass is not in that entry, so the zone-wide November 30 end date applies on Simcoe.

One FMZ 16 exception does touch bass: for inland rivers and streams in Bruce and Grey Counties (excluding waters named in the zone's "additional fishing opportunities" list), the page gives largemouth and smallmouth bass an open season of only the fourth Saturday in June to September 30. If you fish a small river in that part of the province, that is two months earlier than the zone-wide date.

Limits in these zones are mostly six bass on a sport licence and two on a conservation licence (the combined largemouth and smallmouth total). FMZ 10 allows three on a conservation licence, and FMZ 14 is lower: three on a sport licence and one on a conservation licence. The FMZ 14 page states the bass limit as "S-3 and C-1" with no separate daily or possession figure; the general regulations describe zone limits as the number you may catch and retain from that zone.

The December 15 group

FMZ 17 and 18 run bass from the third Saturday in June until December 15, with six on a sport licence and two on a conservation licence. That is two extra weeks compared with the November 30 group, and it overlaps with the walleye season.

One more thing about FMZ 17: its zone-wide walleye season closes November 15, earlier than most people expect, so a late-fall trip for walleye there is a different decision from a late-fall trip for bass.

FMZ 20: two species, two calendars

FMZ 20 is Lake Ontario's waters and works differently from the zones above. Largemouth and smallmouth have separate seasons:

Largemouth: early-season catch and release from January 1 to May 10, then a regular season from the third Saturday in June to December 31.
Smallmouth: early-season catch and release from January 1 to May 10, then a regular season from the first Saturday in July to December 31.

The two species have different retention opening dates, even though they are combined in an aggregate limit of six (sport) and two (conservation). The page also states that aggregate bass limits apply. If you fish a Lake Ontario shoreline in November, the zone-wide season is still open. Where one zone ends and the next begins is easy to get wrong near the edges. The official pages only spell out a few cases: Hamilton Harbour and the Niagara River downstream of the falls are in FMZ 20 (the FMZ 16 page says the same about Hamilton Harbour). For anything else, check your exact spot on the official zone map before you go.

Zones that are open all year

FMZ 2 through 9 list bass as open all year, but "open" does not mean "keep anything." For example:

FMZ 2 and 4: the page says that from January 1 to June 30 and December 1 to December 31, a bass you keep must be under 35 cm and the limit is two (sport) or one (conservation); from July 1 to November 30 the limit is four (sport) or two (conservation) with no size limit.
FMZ 5: limit four (sport) or two (conservation), and bass kept must be under 35 cm from January 1 to June 30.
FMZ 3, 7, 8, 9: six (sport) and two (conservation).
FMZ 6: four (sport) and two (conservation).

So if you live in one of these zones, the question is not "when does it close" but "what can I keep this month?"

The catches: exceptions and closed seasons

Waterbody exceptions. Every zone page ends with lists of lakes, rivers and sanctuaries with their own seasons. A fish sanctuary is closed to fishing of any kind for the dates listed (sanctuaries are not always signed), whatever the zone-wide season says. We read the FMZ 16 list in full for this article (see the Bruce and Grey rivers above) but not every other zone's list, so look up your specific lake or river.
No targeting bass in a closed season. The general regulations state that it is against the law to target a species when its season is closed. Catch-and-release is only a legal way to fish for bass where the zone page itself sets an open season with a limit of zero, as FMZ 20 does from January 1 to May 10. In the zones that simply close on November 30, that means no deliberate bass fishing after the closing date, even if you plan to let everything go.
Border waters. If you fish waters that lie partly in Ontario and partly in another province or state, the general regulations say every fish you catch anywhere in those waters counts toward your Ontario limit when you bring fish into Ontario. Some Quebec and Manitoba border waters can also be fished with either province's resident licence, so check the "Boundary waters" section before you go.
Licences and limits change every year. Conservation licence holders have lower limits. The 2027 summary is published around December.

Why the dates feel confusing

The rules are written as "second Saturday in May" or "fourth Saturday in June" rather than as a fixed date. That keeps seasons aligned to weekends but means the actual date moves every year. For 2026:

Second Saturday in May: May 9
Third Saturday in May: May 16
Third Saturday in June: June 20
Fourth Saturday in June: June 27

If you are planning 2027, do not assume the same calendar dates. Wait for the 2027 summary.

Two-minute checklist before you drive

Which FMZ is the exact spot in (not the nearest town)?
What does the zone-wide bass line say today, and does your lake or river have its own entry in the waterbody exceptions?
Is any part of the water a fish sanctuary with dates that overlap your trip?
Are you on a sport or a conservation licence, and which limit does that give you?
If the water borders another province or state, do your fish from both sides count toward the Ontario limit?
Is the page you are reading the 2026 summary? It is replaced in December.

What about fishing after the season ends?

If you are in a zone where bass close on November 30, you still have walleye, pike (check your zone) and yellow perch seasons in many places. Check each species' season on the same zone page. In FMZ 16, for example, walleye are open until December 31 under the zone-wide rules, and in FMZ 17 the zone-wide walleye season closes on November 15. Check the zone page for pike and perch too, since seasons and limits differ by zone and by waterbody. If walleye are your next target, our look at why fall walleye bite at dusk on Lake Simcoe explains what 45 years of monitoring data says about the timing.

What we checked, and when

We read the zone-wide seasons and limits sections of the FMZ 1 to 20 pages on ontario.ca on October 27, 2026, plus the general regulations page. The dates and limits above are our plain-language paraphrase of those pages. We read the whole FMZ 16 waterbody exception list, but not every other zone's list. If you see a conflict between this page and ontario.ca, trust ontario.ca and tell us so we can fix the page.

Sources