The best time of year to fish in every US state

The season, nationally

Summed across all 50 states, the year has one broad ridge and one broad trough. The ridge runs from June to September, the trough from December to March, and the shoulders move fast: between May and Aug the share of good days nearly doubles, then gives most of it back again by Nov.

Where each state's best month falls

The national curve is an average of 50 quite different calendars. 40 states peak in July or August, which is why the national curve looks like a July–August ridge — but the remaining 10 peak somewhere else entirely, and the exceptions are the interesting part.

Full table: good days by month, every state

Each cell is the share of days in that month the index rates 65 or better at that state's destination water. Darker cells are better months; the outlined cell is that state's own peak. State names link to the live condition page for that state.

Where the seasons matter most — and least

The share-of-days columns above already contain this story, but it is easier to read as a ranking. The swing figure is each state's best month minus its worst: how much the calendar changes the odds.

Reading the three patterns

The single summer peak. Most of the northern tier and the mountain West has one usable ridge and a hard winter, and its best month is the one you would guess. Minnesota runs 10% in Jan against 86% in Aug: nearly the whole season sits in a three-month block. In these states the practical question is not "when is it good" but "how many weekends will be good" — Wyoming offers about 69 good days a year, Vermont about 84.

The long southern season. The Gulf coast and the Atlantic south run good conditions from spring into autumn with a short, shallow trough in midwinter. Florida leads the mainland at about 295 good days a year — more than four times Wyoming's 69 — and even its weakest month, Jan, never falls below 41%. Heat is the limiter in these states rather than cold, and in the middle of summer it starts to matter: the index penalises the muggy, flat-pressure afternoons that follow a stalled summer pattern.

Where the peak moves off summer. Jun, Sep, Oct, Dec each take a share of states that summer does not. The clearest is the desert Southwest: Arizona scores 60% in Jul but 92% in Oct, so its season is really two — spring and autumn — with a midsummer gap. And Hawaii is its own case: its weakest month, Feb, still scores 82% — higher than the best month of 17 other states.

How to read this without being misled

The model scores conditions, not fish. A high-scoring month means more days with the weather that usually produces feeding windows. It cannot know about your lake's fish population, a drawdown, an algae bloom or a closed season. Treat the table as the weather half of a trip decision.

One destination per state. Every figure belongs to a single representative fishing destination — 50 of them in total — not to the whole state. A coastal state with a long coastline will have better and worse corners than the one scored here; the state page links will show you which water each number comes from.

Recorded weather, not forecast. These days already happened, and the trend factors read what the following days actually did. That makes the table a description of typical conditions rather than a prediction — the right input for "which month should I book" and the wrong input for "should I go tomorrow". For that, use today's conditions or the calculator.

Winter scores are not ice advice. Settled high pressure scores well, so some northern states show a respectable January. Whether there is safe ice, an open ramp or a legal season is a local question the model never sees.

Method and data

Window 2024-09-01 to 2026-08-31 (2 full years), 50 locations, 730 days per location. Source: Open-Meteo historical weather archive (ERA5 reanalysis) (archive-api.open-meteo.com). Each day is scored by the same model as the daily pages with a three-day look-back and a three-day look-ahead; a day is credited to its own calendar month. A month is reported only if at least 25 days of it were scored. Snapshot generated 2026-09-17.