Michigan DNR updates fishing rules, new season starts April 1

Iron County anglers heading to Lake Superior or inland waters this spring faced a new set of rules, including a one-fish combined limit at Stannard Rock and Big Reef, a five-fish burbot limit, and a clarified bead-fishing definition that can determine whether a rig counts as an artificial lure.

Michigan’s 2026 fishing license year began April 1 and runs through March 31, 2027. The annual 2026 license is valid through that same date, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources urged anglers to check the regulations before fishing, with the digital version carrying the most up-to-date language.

The Michigan Natural Resources Commission, the seven-member board appointed by the governor that has exclusive authority over game and sportfish regulations, approved the season changes. Among the most enforcement-sensitive is the new daily possession limit for lake trout and splake at Stannard Rock and Big Reef in Lake Superior, where anglers may keep only one combined fish in the designated areas. The DNR also added new walleye rules on Lake Independence and Teal Lake in Marquette County: a 15-inch minimum size, a protected slot from 18 to 23 inches, and a daily limit of five walleye with no more than one fish over 23 inches.

Burbot now carry a daily possession limit of five, the first time Michigan has set a daily cap for the species. That matters for anglers who target late-season fish in cold water and may not be watching a species-specific limit that did not exist in prior years.

Another change affects trout and salmon fishing. Beads fished on the hook or attached within four inches of the eye of a single-pointed hook are now defined as artificial lures. That detail can matter on waters where artificial-lure-only rules apply, and it is the kind of technical point that can turn into a ticket if an angler assumes a bead rig still falls outside the definition.

The DNR also expanded Great Lakes waters open to underwater spearfishing, while ending monthly reporting for that activity. A free annual underwater spearfishing license is still required. The rule package also corrected a printed boundary typo for Lake Michigan, changing the wording from the Michigan/Wisconsin border to the Michigan/Indiana border in the digital version.

For anglers on the Menominee River, the new catch-and-immediate-release lake sturgeon season now runs from the first Saturday in June through the first Sunday in March between Grand Rapids Dam and Sturgeon Falls Dam. Michigan and Wisconsin fisheries biologists estimate 4,500 to 6,900 lake sturgeon live in that reach, giving the river one of the clearest signs of how tightly the new rules are tied to resource management as much as recreation.