Alabama Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Alabama's one year-round trout fishery is the Sipsey Fork below Smith Lake, where water drawn from deep in the lake stays below 70 degrees all year. Rainbows have been stocked there since 1974, and the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division (WFF), with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alabama Power, now puts in about 3,000 rainbows of 8 to 14 inches every month, on a schedule published for 2026. Madison County Lake near Huntsville and Walker County Lake near Jasper, two of the state public fishing lakes, add rainbows in winter, with trout fishing from near the end of November.

From ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters), ADCNR: Madison County Public Fishing Lake and ADCNR: Walker County Public Fishing Lake.

When Alabama stocks trout

From ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters), ADCNR: Madison County Public Fishing Lake and ADCNR: Walker County Public Fishing Lake.

Rules on stocked water

• •Residents 16 to 64 need a freshwater fishing license, $17.00, though a resident may fish from the bank in their home county with hook and line without one. Nonresidents 16 and older pay $66.25 a year ($70.55 from Louisiana, $75.42 from Mississippi) or $37.00 for a 7-day trip. Licenses expire on August 31.
• •On the Sipsey Fork the limit is five trout in the creel and in possession, with no size limit, no closed season and no trout stamp. Catch and release is allowed, but swapping a kept trout for a new one is not, anywhere from Smith Lake Dam down to the Mulberry Fork.
• •At the two lakes the limit is 4 trout a day. Trout anglers need a Daily Trout Permit on top of a fishing license and the lake's $5 fishing permit for anglers 12 and older. A public fishing lakes license, $7.65 a day for residents and $9.00 for nonresidents, covers only the state's county lakes.

From ADCNR: Madison County Public Fishing Lake, ADCNR: Freshwater Fishing Recreational Licenses, Resident, ADCNR: Freshwater Fishing Recreational Licenses, Non-Resident, ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters), ADCNR: Walker County Public Fishing Lake and ADCNR: State Public Fishing Lakes.

How to hear about a stocking

• •Changes to the Sipsey Fork schedule are posted on its page. For the lakes, ADCNR asks anglers to call the lake manager for each winter's trout opening date.

From ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters), ADCNR: Madison County Public Fishing Lake and ADCNR: Walker County Public Fishing Lake.

Worth knowing before you go looking

• •When Smith Dam generates, the Sipsey Fork rises as much as 12 to 15 feet, fast, and the current turns dangerous. Sirens sound when generation starts, and the river takes several hours to drop back. Know the generation schedule before you go: 1-800-LAKES-11, subject to change without notice.
• •Alabama Power owns both banks from Smith Lake Dam down to the Highway 69 bridge, and anglers can reach the river from its land. Below the bridge most of the land is private and the river can only be fished from a boat.
• •The first stretch below the dam is too deep to wade. The water runs in the 40s in winter and the 60s in summer, so waders should be insulated.

From ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters).

Sources

Every sentence above was read on one of these pages, and a check re-reads each quoted line against the page it came from.

• ADCNR: Fishing the Sipsey Fork (Smith Lake Tailwaters)
• ADCNR: Madison County Public Fishing Lake
• ADCNR: Walker County Public Fishing Lake
• ADCNR: State Public Fishing Lakes
• ADCNR: Freshwater Fishing Recreational Licenses, Resident
• ADCNR: Freshwater Fishing Recreational Licenses, Non-Resident