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Fishing rules·AL

Alabama fishing rules

License, gear, and the statewide limits ADCNR publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.

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License

Who needs one
A recreational fishing license is required for residents and nonresidents 16 and older, with the exemptions below. Residents under 16 and nonresidents under 16 are exempt. Residents 65 and older are exempt from the freshwater fishing license and the saltwater fishing license, but a free Saltwater Angler Registry is still required for residents 16 and older who do not buy an annual saltwater license, including people 65 and older, lifetime saltwater license holders, and people fishing only from a pier that has a pier license. Residency for license sales is defined by an Alabama driver's license or non-driver ID. All recreational licenses expire August 31. A saltwater fishing license is required to fish or possess fish in saltwater, and also for a cast net, gig, bow, recreational crab trap, or spearfishing. A Gulf Reef Fish Endorsement is required for anglers 16 and older who take or attempt to take gulf reef fish, including people who are otherwise license-exempt.
Residents
The resident freshwater fishing license listed on the Outdoor Alabama fee page is $17. Residents 65 and older do not have to buy that license. A resident may fish with hook and line from the bank in the county of residence without a license if the angler can show reasonable proof of residency, such as a driver's license. A freshwater public fishing lakes daily license, valid only on state-owned county public fishing lakes and not on major rivers and lakes, is $7.65. The Wildlife Heritage License is $13.95 and allows statewide freshwater bank fishing with hook and line; it is included at no charge with a resident hunting or freshwater fishing license. Spearfishing is an added $6 and still requires a freshwater or saltwater fishing license. The resident annual saltwater license, in the fee table updated August 29, 2025, is $30.05; a trip license is $12.35; a pier license is $7.65; the Reef Fish Endorsement is $10; and a lifetime Gulf Reef Fish Endorsement is $220.
Nonresidents
Nonresidents 16 and older need the matching recreational license. There is no exemption for nonresidents over 65, and no discounted license for a nonresident who is physically disabled or a disabled veteran. The nonresident annual freshwater license is $66.25 for all states except Louisiana ($70.55) and Mississippi ($75.42). A 7-day freshwater trip is $37. A freshwater family 3-day trip, which can add up to four immediate-family members on the same license, is $37. A nonresident college student age 17–23 enrolled in an approved Alabama higher-education institution can buy the annual resident freshwater license for $17. Reciprocal agreements can change fees for residents of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Nonresident annual saltwater licenses in the August 29, 2025 table are $129.20 for Louisiana, $48.20 for Florida, and $64.90 for all other states. Trip licenses are $33.75, $30.20, and $35.65 for those same groups. Spearfishing is $8.50 annual, or $3.50 for a trip.
Free fishing days
Outdoor Alabama set Free Fishing Day for Saturday, June 13, 2026. Recreational fishing in public waters that day, including saltwater, does not require a fishing license, a saltwater fishing license, or a reef fish endorsement. A fishing permit is still required on State Public Fishing Lakes. Private ponds still require the owner's permission. Some piers may still charge a fee or require a permit. Alabama State Park gate entry fees still apply. License and reef-fish endorsement requirements return the next day.

Seasons and closures

  • Fresh water is open unless a species or water is closed

    The creel page establishes seasons for taking fish under the stated times, places, and methods. Public-water creels apply except where a state or federal public fishing lake or pond posts a different limit. Sturgeon and paddlefish are closed statewide. Walleye is closed on the waters listed in the walleye rule. On Lewis Smith and Lake Martin, intentionally culling saltwater striped bass from the creel is unlawful from June 15 through October 15.

  • License year

    Recreational licenses expire August 31. A saltwater trip license is a seven-day license. Free Fishing Day in 2026 was June 13 and did not move the August 31 expiration for licenses bought for the rest of the year.

  • Red snapper and flounder

    The 2026 private and state-charter red snapper season opened May 22 and was set to stay open seven days a week until the end of the year or until Alabama's quota is met. The daily bag is 2, with a 16-inch total-length minimum, in state and federal waters. Harvest of red snapper, gray triggerfish, and greater amberjack must be reported through Snapper Check. Flounder are closed for the month of November; outside that closure the bag is 5 and the minimum is 14 inches total length.

Legal gear

  • Hooks and barbless rules

    The 2025–26 regulation book does not set a statewide barbless-hook rule for ordinary rod-and-reel fishing. Grabbling, noodling, or hand fishing may use hands, a stick, or a single barbless hook attached to a stick. Treble hooks, multi hooks, and barbed hooks are prohibited for that method. It is also unlawful to grabble or hand-fish with the aid of a treble hook, multi hook, or barbed hook. On Weiss Reservoir and Neely Henry Lake, no more than three rods and reels, poles, or any combination may be used. On the Sipsey Fork from Lewis Smith Dam downstream to the Mulberry Fork, no more than two rods may be used for trout, and culling trout from the creel is unlawful.

  • Rods per angler

    The regulation book does not set a statewide cap on the number of rods for ordinary sport fishing, other than the Weiss Reservoir and Neely Henry Lake limit of three rods, reels, or poles in any combination, and the two-rod trout limit on the Sipsey Fork below Lewis Smith Dam. A sport fisherman who is not a licensed commercial fisherman may not fish trotlines, snag lines, or snare lines that together hold more than 100 hooks. Each trotline, snag line, or snare line needs a plastic or metal tag with the owner's name and either an address, fishing license number, or phone number. A set line or bush hook may not be left unattended more than 48 hours.

  • Nets

    Minnows, shad, and listed suckers (spotted sucker, black redhorse, golden redhorse, and blacktail redhorse) may be taken for bait with a cast net, a minnow jug, a minnow basket no longer than 24 inches and no wider than 12 inches with a funnel no more than one inch, or a minnow seine no longer than 25 feet and no deeper than 4 feet. Seines may not be used in unimpounded tributary streams and creeks. Seines are legal only in man-made impoundments and in the Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Tombigbee, Black Warrior, Mobile, Tensaw, and Tennessee rivers. Mullet may be taken by cast net in freshwater, and the daily creel follows the marine mullet rule. Dragging a hoop, fyke, gill, or trammel net, or a seine other than a legal minnow seine, through public water is prohibited. Game fish are not a legal target of commercial nets. State-owned public fishing lakes are hook and line only.

  • Snagging

    Snagging is defined as taking or attempting to take fish by pulling a single hook or a group of hooks through the water in a way that makes it more likely the fish will be impaled somewhere other than the mouth. Snagging is unlawful on all waters of the Tennessee River and its impoundments, and within 800 feet of any dam on the Coosa River or its impoundments. Elsewhere, a licensed or license-exempt sport fisherman may use a snag line or snare line for commercial or nongame fish, with the tag and the 100-hook cap above. Trotlines, set lines, snag lines, commercial nets, slat boxes, and wire baskets are prohibited within one-half mile below any lock, dam, or powerhouse.

  • Spearing and bow

    Licensed or license-exempt sport fishermen may bowfish for commercial or nongame fish with a longbow, recurve, compound bow, crossbow with a working safety, or sling bow, using barbed arrows attached by a line to the bow, a float, a vessel, or the shooter. Underwater spear or similar gear requires a special spearfishing license in addition to a freshwater or saltwater fishing license. Gigs are a legal method for commercial or nongame fish. Firearms may not be used to take fish from public water. In salt water, a saltwater license is required for a gig, bow, or spearfishing. Skates and rays taken by bow, spear, or gig must be fully retained, and it is unlawful to remove the tail from any skate or ray that is released. Shark fishing has extra rules, including a ban on chumming or bloodbaiting within 300 feet of the shoreline or on a public pier.

  • Bait and live transport

    Within Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries jurisdiction it is unlawful to transport any live baitfish or crayfish caught or harvested from streams, rivers, public lakes, or reservoirs away from the water where they were caught. It is also unlawful to import live baitfish caught from the wild outside Alabama. The rule does not prohibit using those live baitfish on the water where they were caught, and it does not prohibit live baitfish from commercial producers and bait shops if the fish were not wild-caught. Suckers caught in the Tennessee River watershed may not be transported for bait outside that watershed, and suckers caught outside it may not be brought in as bait. Live catfish 34 inches or longer may not be transported beyond the state line. On state-owned public fishing lakes, live minnows are limited to goldfish minnows, golden shiners, and fathead minnows, and no minnow may be released into the lake.

Bag and size limits

These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.

  • Black bass

    The statewide public-water creel is 10 in combination for largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Alabama, shoal, and the former redeye bass now named by drainage (Coosa, Warrior, Cahaba, Tallapoosa, and Chattahoochee). No more than 5 of those 10 may be smallmouth. Named waters replace this default. Examples on the creel page: Guntersville Reservoir and Town Creek, and Pickwick Reservoir, largemouth and smallmouth under 15 inches must be released; Harris Reservoir, largemouth between 13 and 16 inches must be released; Lewis Smith Reservoir, largemouth, Alabama, and spotted bass between 13 and 15 inches must be released; Walter F. George and West Point, largemouth under 14 inches must be released; Wheeler, and Wilson plus Big Nance and Town creeks, smallmouth under 15 inches must be released. Shoal bass may not be possessed in Little Uchee, Uchee, Osanippa, Halawakee, and Wacoochee creeks. State and federal public fishing lakes and ponds may post their own creels.

  • Walleye and sauger

    Walleye: daily creel 2. Taking walleye by any method is closed, and any walleye caught must be released, on Sweetwater Lake in the Talladega National Forest, White Plains Lake (Whitesides Mill Lake), Shoal Creek upstream of White Plains Lake, Lake Mitchell between Mitchell Dam and Lay Dam and named tributaries, and the Mulberry Fork and Sipsey Fork and their tributaries in Blount, Cullman, Lawrence, Walker, and Winston counties. Sauger: daily creel 5, and it is illegal to possess a sauger under 15 inches total length.

  • Temperate bass

    White bass: 15. Yellow bass: 15. Saltwater striped bass and hybrids, in combination: 15, and no more than 5 of those 15 may be over 22 inches. On the Chattahoochee River, its impoundments, and tributaries, the aggregate of white bass, saltwater striped bass, and hybrids is 15, and only 2 may exceed 22 inches. Lewis Smith, Lake Martin, Thurlow, and Yates have tighter rules on striped bass over 22 inches, including a June 15–October 15 ban on culling striped bass from the creel on Lewis Smith and Lake Martin. Thurlow and Yates allow no more than two over 22 inches, and only one of those may exceed 30 inches.

  • Crappie, bream, and yellow perch

    Crappie: 30, and it is illegal to possess a crappie under 9 inches from Alabama public waters, including Aliceville and Pickwick. The 9-inch rule does not apply to impoundments under 500 surface acres, reciprocal Chattahoochee waters, Bear Creek Reservoir (Big Bear Lake of the B.C.D.A. lakes), Lake Jackson at Florala, or Weiss Reservoir. Weiss has its own rule: crappie under 10 inches may not be possessed. Bream: 50. Yellow perch: no limit.

  • Catfish

    Catfish under 34 inches: no limit. Catfish over 34 inches: 1. That over-34-inch limit does not apply to catfish harvested from the Perdido, Conecuh, Blackwater, Yellow, Choctawhatchee, Chipola, and Chattahoochee river basins. Live catfish 34 inches or longer may not be transported out of Alabama.

  • Trout, alligator gar, sturgeon, and paddlefish

    Rainbow trout: 5. Alligator gar: 1, and alligator gar caught on commercial gear must be returned immediately. Sturgeon: closed; every sturgeon must be returned immediately. Paddlefish (spoonbill): closed; every paddlefish must be returned immediately. Skipjack herring: 50, and skipjack taken from the Tennessee River and its tributaries may not be sold or traded.

Saltwater

A saltwater fishing license is required for every person fishing or possessing fish in Marine Resources Division jurisdiction, except residents and nonresidents under 16 and residents 65 and older. Residents may fish from a licensed public fishing pier in inside waters without a fishing license. Residents 65 and older, lifetime saltwater license holders, and pier anglers must be in the free Saltwater Angler Registry. Gulf reef fish state waters extend 9 nautical miles from the beach, including Pelican and Sand Island. For other species, state waters extend 3 nautical miles. Reef fish marked on the creel page open and close with federal regulations. Captain and crew of Alabama commercial party boats may not keep a bag limit of fish harvested in state waters. Fish must be landed with head and fins intact.

  • Spotted seatrout: 15-inch minimum and 22-inch maximum total length, 6 per person, and one fish may be over the maximum.
  • Red drum: 16-inch minimum and 26-inch maximum total length, 3 per person, and no oversized fish.
  • Flounder: 14-inch minimum total length, 5 per person, closed for the month of November.
  • Sheepshead: 12-inch minimum fork length, 8 per person. King mackerel: 24-inch minimum fork length, 3 per person. Spanish mackerel: 15 per person; the creel page does not print a minimum length for Spanish mackerel.
  • Red snapper: 16-inch minimum total length, 2 per person in state and federal waters. Gray snapper: 12-inch minimum total length, 10 per person. Vermilion snapper: 10-inch minimum total length, 10 per person.
  • Greater amberjack: 34-inch minimum fork length, 1 per person. Gray triggerfish: 15-inch minimum fork length, 1 per person. Cobia: 36-inch minimum fork length, 1 per person and no more than 2 per vessel.
  • Grouper aggregate is 4 per person, with no more than 2 red grouper and 2 gag in that aggregate. Gag and red grouper are each 2 per person, at 24 inches and 20 inches total length. There is a 20-fish aggregate for reef fish species that do not have their own bag.
  • Goliath grouper, Nassau grouper, sawfish, spotted eagle ray, Atlantic manta, and the shark species listed on the creel page are prohibited. Tarpon: 60-inch minimum total length, and a $67 tag is required to possess, kill, or harvest each tarpon.

Sources