Alaska Trout Stocking Report 2026

Every sentence here comes from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) raises rainbow trout, Arctic char and landlocked coho and Chinook salmon at two hatcheries, William Jack Hernandez in Anchorage and Ruth Burnett in Fairbanks, for lakes in Southcentral and Interior Alaska: more than 200 lakes from the Anchorage hatchery and 114 from Fairbanks. Its 2026 plan puts about 7 million fish into hundreds of waters statewide, salmon smolt for the streams and the sea included. Only native fish may be stocked, and ADF&G has stocked all-female triploid rainbows since 1991. Triploids are sterile, so hatchery fish cannot start new breeding populations, and the stocking records mark every plant triploid or diploid. The 2026 plan sets 377,294 rainbows a year for 82 small lakes in the Mat-Su Valley, 69,750 catchable rainbows for seven lakes and two creeks in the Anchorage Bowl, and rainbows for 24 lakes on the northern Kenai Peninsula.

From ADF&G: Fish Stocking Search, ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Introduction (PDF), ADF&G: William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, ADF&G: Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery, ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan, ADF&G: Hatcheries and Stocking, Frequently Asked Questions and ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Region II, Southcentral (PDF).

The ADF&G trout stocking report

Every plant in ADF&G's stocking database, by area and water, with the date, the species, the number, the average size and whether the fish are sterile. The records go back to 1998. Pick an area and a species, or leave either blank for all of them, and set the dates. The 2026 season began April 1, 2026; move the start date back for earlier years. To search one water, pick its area and press View Locations.

Open the Fish Stocking Search
  • Statewide Stocking Plan: The five-year plan of which waters get which fish and how many, as an introduction and one part for each of the three regions. It goes out for public comment every January.

From ADF&G: Fish Stocking Search, ADF&G: Stocking records, Anchorage, 2025, ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan and ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Introduction (PDF).

When Alaska stocks trout

Spring, from early May through June

The big round of the year runs from early May through June. In 2025 Cheney Lake in Anchorage got catchable rainbows of about 10 inches on May 9, May 19, June 11 and June 24, Canoe Lake in the Mat-Su Valley on May 1, and Birch Lake near Fairbanks from May 14 to 21. Much of the spring stocking in the Mat-Su Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula is fingerlings of 2 to 3 inches rather than catchable fish: in 2025 Big Beaver Lake got 16,002 on June 2 and Island Lake on the Kenai 28,002 on May 29.

A second round from late August into October

Town lakes get catchable rainbows again at the end of summer. In Anchorage that was August 25 to 29 in 2025 (Cheney and Jewel lakes among them) and mid-September in 2024; near Fairbanks, Chena and Cushman lakes got theirs from August 20, 2025. ADF&G's Interior plan has its town lakes stocked several times a year. Landlocked salmon follow at the end of September and into October. Coho went into Mirror and Jewel lakes in Anchorage from September 29 to October 1, 2025, and Chinook into Chena and Cushman lakes near Fairbanks from September 30 to October 6, 2026. In Anchorage the plan stocks them for winter fishing, when rainbows may be less active.

Big rainbows in Anchorage in December

Two Decembers running, large rainbows went into Anchorage town lakes, 30 to 250 to a plant: fish of about 25 inches and 6 pounds into Campbell Point, Cheney, DeLong and Jewel lakes on December 16 and 17, 2025, and fish of 17 to 22 inches into Campbell Point, DeLong and Jewel lakes from December 26 to 30, 2024. The stocking plan says surplus brood fish are stocked from time to time.

From ADF&G: Stocking records, Anchorage, 2025, ADF&G: Stocking records, Mat-Su, 2025, ADF&G: Stocking records, Fairbanks, 2025, ADF&G: Stocking records, Kenai Peninsula, 2025, ADF&G: Stocking records, Anchorage, 2024, ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Region III, Interior (PDF), ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Region II, Southcentral (PDF), ADF&G: Stocking records, Fairbanks, 2026 and ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Introduction (PDF).

Rules on stocked water

  • Residents 18 and older and nonresidents 16 and older need a sport fishing license. Residents pay $20 a year; nonresidents pay $15 for a day, $30 for three days, $45 for seven, $75 for fourteen or $100 for the year. Residents 60 and older fish without a license on an ADF&G identification card, and king salmon in stocked lakes need no king salmon stamp.
  • In the Anchorage Bowl's stocked waters the limit is 5 rainbows a day and 5 in possession, only 1 of them 20 inches or longer, and 5 landlocked salmon and 5 Arctic char. A rainbow of 20 inches or longer kept there, or in the Knik Arm, Susitna, West Cook Inlet or Kenai Peninsula areas, counts toward an annual limit of 2 and has to be recorded at once.
  • In the Interior's stocked lakes the limit is 10 a day and 10 in possession of rainbow trout, Arctic char, landlocked salmon and lake trout combined, no more than 2 of them lake trout and only 1 of them 18 inches or longer. Harding Lake's lake trout have a rule of their own.

From ADF&G: Sport Fishing Licenses, King Salmon Stamps, IDs and Harvest Record Cards, ADF&G: Product Prices, ADF&G: 2026 Southcentral Sport Fishing Regulations, Anchorage Bowl (PDF) and ADF&G: 2026 Northern Sport Fishing Regulations, Stocked Waters (PDF).

How to hear about a stocking

  • Check the Fish Stocking Search before a trip: it carried plants from early October 2026 within two weeks. The Northern regulations also send anglers to the Alaska Lake Database for current releases.

From ADF&G: Stocking records, Fairbanks, 2026 and ADF&G: 2026 Northern Sport Fishing Regulations, Stocked Waters (PDF).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • Anchorage's two stocked creeks close to fishing every spring. Campbell Creek is closed to all fishing from April 15 to June 14 (it got 998 rainbows on June 12, 2025), and Chester Creek is open only from June 15 to April 14, never for salmon.
  • Northern pike are invasive in Southcentral Alaska and may not be released alive. ADF&G reviews the Anchorage lake stocking every year for pike.
  • Not every stocked lake is a roadside one. In the Interior the remote lakes, reached by a long trail or by air, are usually stocked once a year or every other year, and with fingerlings.

From ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Region II, Southcentral (PDF), ADF&G: 2026 Southcentral Sport Fishing Regulations, Anchorage Bowl (PDF), ADF&G: Stocking records, Anchorage, 2025 and ADF&G: Statewide Stocking Plan for Sport Fish 2026, Region III, Interior (PDF).

Which day to fish it

The schedule says where the fish went in. Which day to go is a different question: the forecast scores each day of the week for trout at the water you pick, from its water temperature, the wind and the weather.

See the week for rainbow trout

Species guides: Rainbow Trout · Lake Trout · Coho Salmon · Chinook Salmon

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.

Spotted something out of date or plain wrong here? Tell us and we will check it.