Alaska Fishing Report: November 2026 to February 2027
This is the November 2026 to February 2027 edition at its permanent link. See the current Alaska report.
Alaska fishes the ice on its stocked lakes and feeder kings in the salt
Alaska's winter is two fisheries. From Anchorage and the Mat-Su valleys to Fairbanks, the stocked lakes freeze thick and give rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, char and burbot from freeze-up to break-up, and on the Kenai Peninsula the national wildlife refuge opens its lakes to snowmachines once the ice will carry them. In the salt, feeder king salmon winter in Kachemak Bay and in the channels of Southeast, and the Cook Inlet winter king fishery runs to March 31.
Almost every rule in Alaska is set area by area and changed by emergency order, so check the area's rules and ADF&G's current orders before fishing. Most of the state's fishing reports are summer products, the department's area reports among them, so this edition names the little that reports in winter.
The state's rules are below under the same headings as every region, written for someone fishing Alaska for the first time: the license and the king stamp, bait and gear, the stocked lakes, and salt water.
Alaska's licenses and king stamps run out on December 31
An Alaska sport fishing license and an annual king salmon stamp both run the calendar year, so anyone fishing after New Year needs 2027's, and the stamp is needed to fish for kings, the winter fishery in the salt included. Halibut closes for January and opens again on February 1, and Southcentral's lingcod season ends on December 31.
Dates that change what you may keep
3 of these 3 change a season, a bag limit or a legal method. Every day of the week below was checked against a calendar.
| When | What changes | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Thu December 31 | Alaska sport fishing licenses and annual king salmon stamps expire, and Southcentral's lingcod season closes. | AK |
| Fri January 1 | Halibut is closed through January 31, and in Southeast the nonresident annual king salmon limit starts again at three. | AK |
| Mon February 1 | Halibut opens again, two a day for anglers fishing without a guide. | AK |
Winter king salmon in the salt
The two winter king fisheries run on different rules: Cook Inlet's are in the regulations, Southeast's are set each year by emergency order.
| Where | Daily limit | Annual limit and recording |
|---|---|---|
| Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay salt water | Two kings, no size limit, to March 31 | No annual limit and no recording, though the king stamp is still required |
| Southeast salt water, residents | Two kings of at least 28 inches | No annual limit in state waters |
| Southeast salt water, nonresidents | One king of at least 28 inches | One a year through December 31 and three from January 1, each recorded at once |
The Southeast limits are those of ADF&G's order for the season to April 30, 2027, which later orders changed for the summer; check the current orders before fishing. Beyond three miles from shore every angler in Southeast follows the nonresident rules.
The Alaska report, section by section
The rules, local reports, stocking and the engine outlook for each part of Alaska are on its own page, one section at a time.
The weather and the water from November to February, most years
This part does not change from year to year, which is why it is worth reading before the forecast rather than after it.
- The weather
- Winter in Alaska runs from the long dark and deep cold of the Interior, where Fairbanks can sit at forty below for days, to the wet, windy and comparatively mild coast of Southeast and the Gulf. Southcentral falls between, with cold snaps and chinook thaws trading places, and daylight shrinks to a few hours around the solstice before it starts coming back.
- The water
- Lakes across the Interior and Southcentral freeze thick and stay frozen until spring, and the rivers ice over except where springs or fast water keep stretches open. The coast stays open, though small harbors can freeze in a hard cold spell, and the bays where young king salmon winter are fished between storms.
- How the quarter breaks
- It opens with freeze-up, the weeks when new ice is forming and nobody should trust it. December to February is the ice fishing season on the stocked lakes and the heart of the winter king fishery in the salt, with the shortest days of the year at the turn of it. It closes with lengthening days, burbot biting again under the ice, and the winter king tournaments of March.
The moon from November to February
| Month | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | Sun, Nov 8 | Tue, Nov 24 |
| December 2026 | Tue, Dec 8 | Wed, Dec 23 |
| January 2027 | Thu, Jan 7 | Fri, Jan 22 |
| February 2027 | Sat, Feb 6 | Sat, Feb 20 |
The U.S. Naval Observatory's dates, on local time.
What our engine expects on the salt water and the Kenai
Everything above this point either happened or happens every winter. This part is a forecast for the two weeks from the date stamped below, scored by the same engine that runs the rest of this site: water temperature, wind, river flow, rain, pressure, cloud, air temperature, UV, humidity and solunar, weighted by species and by season.
A two-week stretch of Alaska winter is short daylight and a run of Gulf of Alaska storms, with clear, bitter spells between them inland. The outlook grades the winter king water, off Homer, at Valdez and in Sitka Sound, where the water temperature comes from a buoy or a tide station's thermometer, and the Kenai at Soldotna on its own gauge. It leaves the lakes out: the lake model we use stops at the lower 48, and a model built on the air cannot see a lake under ice. Good hours counts the hours at or above a B-plus, which says how long a day holds.
This is a weather forecast, so it covers two weeks and not the season, and the further out a date sits the less it is worth. No forecast can say whether the ice will hold you or whether the boat should go out, and the state does not measure the ice for anglers. We publish a grade, not a promise.
Engine outlook generated November 3, 2026, covering 4 waters.
What this report does not cover
- This is a seasonal guide, not a continuously updated field report. Its engine outlook covers only the dated two-week window. For current conditions use the department's area offices and the sources named in the state section.
- Ice is not in this edition: it changes by the day, and freeze-up is the most dangerous time to trust it.
- Area-by-area rules are not printed; Alaska sets nearly all of them area by area and changes them by emergency order.
- License prices are printed as read on October 20.
Waters we are not grading in this outlook
Some waters that would otherwise appear in the outlook are left out of it, because the nearest water-temperature station sits on a different water or because no thermometer we can read measures them, and an Alaska lake has no lake model to fall back on. Water temperature is between a fifth and a third of the score. The ones held back are listed below, each with the station it was offered instead.
- Big Lake (AK)
- Chena Lake (AK): nearest station is SALCHA R NR SALCHAKET AK
- Chiniak Bay off Kodiak (AK): nearest station is RED CLOUD R TR NR KODIAK AK