Arizona Trout Stocking Schedule 2026

Every sentence here comes from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), and each section names its sources. Updated .

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) manages more than 100 waters for trout, and its statewide schedule lists every water that gets catchable trout from its hatcheries. Most of those fish are raised to a target of 9.5 inches before they are stocked. The mountain lakes and streams are stocked in spring and summer, and the city park lakes of its Community Fishing Program from fall to spring.

From AZGFD: 2025 & 2026 Arizona Fishing Regulations (PDF), AZGFD: Fish Stocking Schedule, AZGFD: Fish Hatcheries, AZGFD: Trout to Be Stocked Soon in Some Rim Waters (7 March 2024) and AZGFD: Arizona's Community Fishing Program.

The AZGFD trout stocking schedule

AZGFD's page for its statewide and community stocking schedules. The statewide one lists every water that gets catchable trout from its hatcheries; the community one lists catfish and sunfish as well as trout. Each date is the Monday of the stocking week, and the fish can go in on any day that week; in the community waters, any day from Monday to Saturday.

Open the Fish Stocking Schedule
  • Fish & Boat Arizona: AZGFD's map of the state's waters, with driving directions, stocking information, bag limits and fishing reports for each. Use it to find a water the schedule names.

From AZGFD: Fish Stocking Schedule and AZGFD: 2025 & 2026 Arizona Fishing Regulations (PDF).

When Arizona stocks trout

High-country lakes and streams

The traditional spring and summer season in the mountains runs from April to September. In 2024 AZGFD began stocking some waters in March: Canyon, Haigler and Tonto creeks near Payson, and the Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside lakes (Fool Hollow, Rainbow, Show Low and Woodland lakes and Scott Reservoir), which it moved to a March to July season it said it would keep until at least 2026. Among the lakes AZGFD calls its most popular, Willow Springs on the Mogollon Rim holds rainbow and tiger trout, Woods Canyon brown, rainbow and tiger trout, and Big Lake in the White Mountains brook, cutthroat and rainbow trout.

Community Fishing Program

More than 50 city park lakes in 23 Arizona communities take part, and trout are among the fish stocked in them. No fish go into the community lakes and ponds from 25 June to 15 September, because of the summer heat. On the community schedule T marks a trout stocking, and AZGFD says that schedule changes only if a delivery fails or a lake is unfit to stock.

From AZGFD: Trout Stockings Adjusted at Some High-Country Lakes (6 March 2024), AZGFD: Trout to Be Stocked Soon in Some Rim Waters (7 March 2024), AZGFD: Arizona's Most Popular Lakes to Fish, AZGFD: Arizona's Community Fishing Program, AZGFD: 2025 & 2026 Arizona Fishing Regulations (PDF) and AZGFD: Fish Stocking Schedule.

Rules on stocked water

  • Anglers 10 and older need an Arizona fishing license on any public water; children under 10 and blind residents do not. A general fishing license is $37 for residents and $55 for nonresidents, and there is no trout stamp to buy.
  • The statewide limit is 4 trout a day, in any combination of species. At a community water it is 4 at a lake and 2 at a pond, and once you have your limit you must stop fishing for trout.
  • Many waters have their own rules, from catch and release to a 2-trout limit, so read the special regulations for a water before you fish it. At Lees Ferry on the Colorado, for one, the limit is 2 rainbow trout a day, on artificial flies and lures with barbless hooks.
  • These are the 2025 and 2026 regulations, in force through 31 December 2026.

From AZGFD: Fishing Licenses and Regulations and AZGFD: 2025 & 2026 Arizona Fishing Regulations (PDF).

How to hear about a stocking

  • AZGFD changes the schedules through the season with the weather and the conditions at each water, so check the schedule again before you drive.
  • It also puts out a Fishing Report through the year and announces each one on azgfd.com, as it did in July 2026.

From AZGFD: Fish Stocking Schedule and AZGFD: July 2026 Fishing Report Is Available (21 July 2026).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • When the water is over 68°F, AZGFD asks anglers to keep the first four stocked trout they catch rather than release them.
  • AZGFD says its trout are well below the state standard for mercury, with no limit on how many meals you eat.

From AZGFD: 2025 & 2026 Arizona Fishing Regulations (PDF) and AZGFD: Fish Stocking Schedule.

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 · Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Cutthroat Trout

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.