Fishing Calendar December 2026: Best Days to Fish
December splits river fishing in two. Trout are out of season on every English river, yet grayling, which count as coarse fish in law, stay in season alongside chub and pike. The calendar splits as well: its main poor stretch runs up to Christmas Day, and its last best run starts on the bank holiday after it.
Midwinter on English water
River level usually matters more than the weather, as our York page says of the Ouse. The river drains a large part of the Yorkshire Dales, so rain far upstream can raise it under a clear sky, and in winter it runs high more often than not. When it is up, the page advises fishing the inside line, because fish leave the main flow and tuck in closer to the bank than anglers expect.
In a hard frost, our Birmingham page notes, the city’s shallower canal stretches can ice over faster than the flowing Tame or Rea, shutting the towpath swims until the thaw. North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s advice on frozen ponds, lakes and canals is to stay off them: even ice that looks thick from the bank can thin out very quickly further out, and if a person or a dog goes through, stay on the bank and call 999. Our note on what makes ice dangerous explains why ice that looks solid in one spot can be dangerously thin a few steps away.
What bites in December
Pike
Pike are one of the four species scored in the forecast tables on our city pages, along with perch, bream and carp. If you sit it out with static deadbaits, the rod rules matter. The standard trout and coarse licence covers two rods; a third needs the three-rod licence, which is sold only for 12 months. The national byelaws require your outermost rods to be no more than 3 metres apart and make it illegal to leave a rod unattended with its bait or hook in the water. A fishery can allow fewer rods than your licence does.
Grayling
Grayling are coarse fish in law, so on rivers they share the coarse close season of 15 March to 15 June and stay in season through December, while the trout in the same water are out of season in every English byelaw area, so any trout you hook goes straight back. Under the national byelaws you may keep two grayling a day from a river, between 30 and 38 cm, a slot rather than a minimum size. According to our Sheffield page, wild grayling are back in the fast, stony water of the upper Don, Loxley and Rivelin. Our note on the centrepin reel explains why it suits trotting: the drum turns freely, so the reel itself never holds the float back and it can travel at the speed of the current.
Chub
Chub are in season on every river through the winter, but the forecast does not score them, and our Nottingham page makes the same point about the Trent, which is known above all for barbel and chub. For chub and grayling, the general day ratings below are the only guide we give. From a river the national byelaws let you keep chub only up to 20 cm, within 15 small coarse fish a day, so anything bigger goes back.
Fishing calendar for December 2026
| Best | 1–2, 13–17 and 28–31 December | longest run is the 13th to 17th |
| Good | 3–9, 12, 18–20 and 26–27 December | seven in a row from the 3rd |
| Poor | 11 and 21–25 December | full moon falls on the 24th |
| Very poor | 10 December | the day after the new moon |
Best days to fish in December
The best days are 1–2, 13–17 and 28–31 December. The first two follow on from November’s last two, the 29th and 30th, making Sunday 29 November to Wednesday 2 December one four-day run. The longest run inside the month is Sunday the 13th to Thursday the 17th, and the last, Monday the 28th to Thursday the 31st, starts on a bank holiday and ends on New Year’s Eve.
Good days are 3–9, 12, 18–20 and 26–27 December. The seven days from Thursday the 3rd to Wednesday the 9th make up the longest good run and take in the weekend of the 5th and 6th. Then comes the weakest point of the month: very poor on Thursday the 10th and poor on Friday the 11th, before a good Saturday on the 12th.
The main poor stretch is 21–25 December, Monday to Friday, ending on Christmas Day. The full moon falls inside it, on Thursday the 24th, Christmas Eve, while the new moon on Wednesday the 9th lands on a good day, with the month’s only very poor day straight after it.
No weekend is best on both days. The closest is 12–13 December, a good Saturday before a best Sunday; 5–6, 19–20 and 26–27 are good on both days. Christmas Day, Friday the 25th, is a bank holiday that falls on a poor day. Boxing Day falls on Saturday the 26th, a good day, so the bank holiday moves to Monday the 28th, the first of the four best days that close the year.
What experienced anglers advise
Ben Humber: deadbaits for pike
In his deadbaiting tutorial for Fox Rage TV, Ben Humber chooses his line for safety. He uses 55 lb braid, about the diameter of 15 lb mono by his account, so that a rig snagged on a sunken tree can be pulled steadily until the trebles straighten, instead of the line snapping and leaving a baited trace for a pike to swallow. Bites register twice, on a drop-off indicator and an alarm, because he wants to know the moment a pike has the bait. Some fisheries ban freshwater deadbaits for fear of spreading disease, or allow only certain sea baits, so check the rules first, he says.
Daniel Woolcott: grayling after a hard frost
For Drennan Tackle, Daniel Woolcott fishes the River Frome in Dorset after a frost of about minus three and a thick mist, which he calls perfect grayling conditions. He covers water to find the fish and feeds little and often. A 3.6 g loafer float gives enough buoyancy to pull line off the centrepin in turbulent water. He pairs it with a floating 4.4 lb main line, because line that sinks forms a bow that drags the float. He sets it over depth, then edges it up until he is fishing just off the bottom. Grayling have bony mouths and shed hooks, so he uses fine wire: a 16 in clear water, a 14 with some colour. His first choice is white or red maggot, but sweetcorn, he finds, picks out the bigger fish.
Phil Spinks: winter chub on the move
Phil Spinks gives five winter chub tips for Angling Direct. He returns a fish upstream of the swim, which often brings another bite quickly, and travels light, because after 15 to 20 minutes without a bite there is probably no chub there. Snags, bends and creases are the obvious spots, but he catches from plain straights too. His bait is cheese paste while the river carries colour, bread flake with liquidised bread through a feeder as it clears, and trotted maggot on finer hooklengths when it runs really clear. He wants a soft fibreglass quiver tip of 1 to 2 oz, because a chub that feels too much resistance on a link leger will often drop the bait.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy a rod licence as a Christmas present?
Yes. The Environment Agency sells rod licences for England and Wales online for someone else as well as yourself; you need their details, such as date of birth. A licence can be bought up to 30 days before it starts. A 12-month trout and coarse licence costs £36.80 for up to two rods or £55.30 for three; juniors aged 13 to 16 get theirs free. An emailed or texted licence usually arrives within an hour, a posted one within 10 working days, and the licence phone line is closed at weekends and on public holidays.
Can I fish for trout in December?
Not on rivers, and in the North West and North East not on canals either. Every English byelaw area has a close season for brown and rainbow trout on rivers that covers December, though the dates differ: 1 October to 14 March in the North West, 1 November to 2 April in the Southern area. Stillwaters are another matter: there is no close season for rainbow trout in any stillwater, or for brown trout in a fully enclosed one, which fish cannot swim into or out of.
Can I use live bait for pike?
Under the national byelaws, yes, as long as the bait fish are kept at, and used only in, the water they came from; some local byelaws do not allow it, so check the byelaws for your area. Moving fish from one water to another needs written agreement from the Environment Agency. Crayfish, dead or alive, may not be used as bait at all, and a fishery can set stricter rules of its own.
See also
- Fishing calendar November 2026 — the month before, whose last two days are best;
- Fishing calendar 2026 — the whole year in one place;
- Fishing forecast in the United Kingdom — bite forecasts for ten English cities.
