Kentucky · Pheasant · 2026 Edition
Kentucky Pheasant Season 2026: Dates, Zones & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Pheasant quota hunt (drawn permit, put-and-take pen-reared birds) | Green River (Lake) WMA | Nov 20 – Nov 22 |
| Pheasant quota hunt (drawn permit, put-and-take pen-reared birds) | Clay WMA | Dec 4 – Dec 6 |
| Pheasant quota hunt (drawn permit, put-and-take pen-reared birds) | Yellowbank WMA | Dec 4 – Dec 6 |
02 — Bag limits
| Each quota hunt | 2 pheasants (either sex) per drawn hunter — figure from search-indexed KDFWR content, not independently confirmed on a directly-read agency page this round |
|---|---|
| Application | One pheasant quota hunt application per hunter per year; a drawn hunter may hunt only the single day/area they were drawn for |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (November 20, 2026) 06:57 — 17:57
Rule: Thirty minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset — the Kentucky Hunting Guide's general rule. Its exception list covers waterfowl and migratory birds, not upland game birds, so pheasant keeps the after-sunset half hour. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Kentucky sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Pheasant hunters in Kentucky need a Kentucky hunting license — a valid Kentucky hunting license plus, if drawn, a Pheasant Quota Hunt Permit (reported ~$25) — quota-hunt applications cost $3 each, submitted online only during the Sept. 1-30, 2026 application window; a hunter may apply for only one pheasant quota hunt and cannot be drawn for more than one hunt
Kentucky hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Kentucky — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does pheasant season open in Kentucky?
The earliest 2026 opener is November 20, 2026. See the table above for each segment and zone.
When does pheasant season end in Kentucky?
The latest 2026 closing date is December 6, 2026. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Can I shoot hen pheasants in Kentucky?
See the bag limit table above — most states restrict the daily bag to roosters only, but rules vary and this is worth double-checking against Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources before you hunt.
How many pheasants can you shoot in Kentucky per day?
2026 bag limits: Each quota hunt — 2 pheasants (either sex) per drawn hunter — figure from search-indexed KDFWR content, not independently confirmed on a directly-read agency page this round. Application — One pheasant quota hunt application per hunter per year; a drawn hunter may hunt only the single day/area they were drawn for. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting pheasant in Kentucky?
On opening day (November 20, 2026) legal light runs 06:57 to 17:57. The rule is: Thirty minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset — the Kentucky Hunting Guide's general rule. Its exception list covers waterfowl and migratory birds, not upland game birds, so pheasant keeps the after-sunset half hour. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Kentucky sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt pheasant on my own land in Kentucky without a license?
Kentucky resident farmland owners — or their spouse or dependent children — may hunt (not trap) and fish that land without a license; resident tenants living there and their dependent children get the same right. Season dates, zone rules, bag limits, and telecheck reporting still apply.
Verified · Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources · Last verified 2026-08-15
Publisher's note. fw.ky.gov actively blocked every automated retrieval method tried this session: direct WebFetch returned 403 on the quota-hunts page and every PDF guide (huntingguideentire.pdf, HuntingGuidePublicLands.pdf, public-lands-print.pdf, huntingguidequotahunts.pdf); the r.jina.ai text-extraction proxy loaded only a tracking-pixel stub with no article text; and a live browser load of the quota-hunts page returned the site's own 'Service unavailable — the request is blocked' WAF page. Because the agency's own pages could not be read directly, the season structure below is built from search-engine-indexed snippets of KDFWR's own news releases (fw.ky.gov/News/Pages/Quota-hunt-application-period-open-through-September.aspx) plus two independent secondary hunting guides (ultimateupland.com/states/kentucky and stateoutdoors.org/hunting/seasons/kentucky) that both, independently, report the identical three-WMA structure for 2026-27: Green River (Lake) WMA Nov. 20-22, 2026; Clay WMA Dec. 4-6, 2026; and Yellowbank WMA Dec. 4-6, 2026 — all put-and-take hunts using pen-reared birds released just before each hunt, since Kentucky has no self-sustaining wild pheasant population. Application window (Sept. 1-30, online only, $3 per application) and the ~$25 permit cost for drawn hunters are corroborated by KDFWR's own quoted figures in search snippets and by a Kentucky Hunting forum thread citing the guide. One detail could NOT be confirmed and was deliberately left out: a search-engine AI summary separately claimed an additional 'Dec. 8-31, either sex, daily limit three' general-access period at one WMA, and a different source mentioned a 'clean-up hunt day' after the quota days — neither claim could be verified against a primary page or a second independent source, so no extended/general segment is included here. If it exists, this file understates the season length. Recommend re-verifying directly against fw.ky.gov (or by phone, 800-858-1549) once its bot-blocking allows automated access, or via a manually-downloaded copy of the Fall Hunting and Trapping Guide.