Two young-of-year musky in 2008
For years the big toothy fish caught in the lower Chenango were written off as tiger musky that had washed out of Whitney Point Reservoir or wandered up from the Susquehanna. Then DEC's Region 7 staff looked at more than 150 angler photos of Chenango and Susquehanna fish and found only six with the classic tiger markings. The proof came in a 2008 survey: one young-of-year muskellunge captured and a second seen, the first documented natural reproduction of musky in the Chenango. DEC credits Pennsylvania's pure-strain stockings in the Susquehanna as the likely seed, stopped stocking tiger musky in 2005, and now manages the wild fish for trophies.
DEC says musky are found from Chenango Bridge downstream, which is the lowest part of the river, below the Chenango Forks gauge and down to the confluence with the Susquehanna in Binghamton. If you catch a tagged fish, DEC asks you to leave the tag in, note the number, length, date and place, and report it to the Region 7 fisheries office in Cortland.
Morrisville browns, Binghamton bass
The river starts in Morrisville in Madison County and runs about 90 miles through Chenango County to Binghamton, picking up the Tioughnioga at Chenango Forks. It fishes like two different rivers. DEC stocks the reach from Randallsville Road in Randallsville up to Old County Road in Morrisville with 2,540 yearling brown trout of about 9 inches and 280 two-year-olds of about 14 inches each year, and most of those fish are caught in early spring soon after they go in. From about Sherburne downstream the river belongs to smallmouth bass, northern pike and walleye, with channel catfish, carp, yellow perch, sunfish and bullhead filling in the lower miles.
A season in four species
April and May: the upper river's stocked browns are the target, and walleye open on May 1. DEC says walleye fishing is most productive from May to late June, on jigs tipped with a worm or minnow worked through the pools, or on stickbaits and deep-diving crankbaits. June: bass open to harvest on June 15 and musky on June 1. July through September: DEC calls late June to October the best of the smallmouth fishing, working the heads and tails of pools and any current break around fallen trees with tubes, jigs, spinnerbaits and stickbaits, or drifting crayfish, worms and shiners. Fly anglers do the same with crayfish and sculpin patterns, and the Susquehanna's white mayfly hatch in late July and early August is worth watching for on the lower Chenango's summer evenings. September through December: the second walleye window, and musky and pike on big in-line spinners, stickbaits and large suckers until musky season ends November 30. Use a wire leader for both toothy species.
Hand launches from North Norwich to Port Crane
Most of the lower river is bank and small-boat water. DEC lists hand launches in the Village of Greene at the Route 41 bridge with parking for 6 cars; at North Norwich off Route 12 with parking for 16; just west of the Village of Sherburne off Route 80 with parking for 8; and off Route 12 on County Route 32B with parking for 15. There is a beach launch on Route 12 in the hamlet of Brisben with room for 8 cars. In Broome County the Port Crane access is at Route 369 and Ballyhack Road, a hand launch with parking for 15. A canoe or kayak float between two of these sites is the easiest way to cover the long pools.
Reading the Chenango Forks gauge
USGS 01512500 sits near Chenango Forks, below the Tioughnioga confluence, so it reflects both rivers and is the right gauge for the musky and bass water down to Binghamton. For the upper trout reach it runs far too high; the Greene gauge, 01507000, typically reads about 40 percent of the Forks number and sits much closer to that water.
No shop publishes a range for this gauge, so the 450 to 1,150 cfs band on this page comes from the USGS record since 1912. Monthly medians at the Forks are 1,128 cfs in June, 689 in July, 495 in August, 513 in September and 932 in October, the months DEC names as the smallmouth season. March and April medians of 5,006 and 5,032 cfs are spring high water, when the river is better fished from the bank for walleye than waded.
Statewide rules, plus a spring closure in Binghamton
DEC's Chenango River page says statewide regulations apply, and the Region 7 special rules list nothing for the Chenango itself. Under the statewide rules in effect from April 1, 2026, black bass may be kept from June 15 through November 30 at 12 inches, 5 a day, and are catch and release with artificial lures only from December 1 to June 14. Musky season is June 1 through November 30 with a 40 inch minimum and 1 fish. Walleye run May 1 through March 15 at 15 inches and 5 a day; northern pike have the same season at 18 inches. Trout in the upper river follow the statewide stream rules: April 1 to October 15, 5 a day with no more than 2 over 12 inches, then catch and release with artificial lures.
One nearby exception: the Region 7 list closes the Susquehanna between Rock Bottom Dam and the Exchange Street Bridge in Binghamton from March 16 through April 30, just downstream of where the Chenango comes in.