Hawaii Trout Stocking Report 2026

Every sentence here comes from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), and each section names its sources. Updated .

Hawaii's trout fishing is on Kauaʻi, in the Kōkeʻe Public Fishing Area, and almost all of it at Puʻu Lua Reservoir, where its Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) stocks rainbow trout. The season is short: in 2026 it runs daily from June 20 to September 30, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the reservoir is closed to trout fishing the rest of the year. In 2025 anglers made 3,305 recorded visits to Puʻu Lua and caught 16,462 trout, the largest about 2 pounds. The streams and ditches in the fishing area hold trout too, but they are no longer stocked and catches there are poor.

From DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026), DAR: 30,000 Trout Yearlings Arrive at Puʻu Lua Reservoir (February 12, 2026) and DAR: Trout Season Wraps up on Kauai (October 7, 2025).

The DLNR trout stocking report

DLNR's yearly announcement of the season: the dates, that year's bag limit, how many young trout went in, and the rules and check-in stations at the reservoir. It came out on May 20 in 2026 and May 16 in 2025.

Open the Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe

From DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026) and DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe Opens June 14 (May 16, 2025).

When Hawaii stocks trout

Young trout into Puʻu Lua, November to January

DAR raises the young trout at its Ānuenue Fisheries Research Center on Oʻahu and flies them to Kauaʻi in winter, into grow-out pens in the reservoir: 30,000 yearlings on January 9, 12 and 13, 2026, about 22,000 in early January 2025, and 25,800 fingerlings over the last three days of November 2022. The fish grow in the reservoir until the season opens in June, and trout that survive a season can grow into trophy fish for the next.

From DAR: 30,000 Trout Yearlings Arrive at Puʻu Lua Reservoir (February 12, 2026), DAR: Annual rainbow trout season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi opens June 14 (2025), DAR: Trout stocking under way for 2023 season (December 13, 2022) and DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026).

Rules on stocked water

  • Anglers need a Hawaii freshwater game fishing license: $5 for residents and military 16 and older, $3 for minors 9 to 15, $25 for nonresidents, or $10 for 7 days and $20 for 30 days as a visitor. Seniors 65 and older get theirs free.
  • In 2026 the bag limit is seven rainbow trout per licensed angler, and every trout caught counts toward it: catch and release is not allowed. Each angler fishes one line with one single barbed hook, lure or bait, and treble hooks are banned.
  • Every angler checks in and out. At Puʻu Lua the stations are at the parking area and at the reservoir intake.

From DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026) and DAR: Licenses and Permits.

How to hear about a stocking

  • Watch for DLNR's season release in May, with the dates and that year's bag limit. DAR's blog follows the winter stocking and the reservoir's water level.

From DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026), DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe Opens June 14 (May 16, 2025) and DAR: 30,000 Trout Yearlings Arrive at Puʻu Lua Reservoir (February 12, 2026).

Worth knowing before you go looking

  • No boat or floating object of any kind may go on Puʻu Lua, no camping or open fires are allowed near it, and no dogs, even on a leash, since the reservoir is in Hunting Unit J.
  • Four-wheel drive is highly recommended. The roads get worse as the season goes on, and coming out is usually harder than going in. The reservoir is on Haʻeleʻele Ridge Road, 3/4 of a mile from the turnoff at Mile Marker 12.
  • Drought can shrink the reservoir and the fish. The summer of 2025 dropped Puʻu Lua to worrying depths, and DAR expected that year's trout to run a little smaller after a late stocking and drought.

From DLNR: Annual Rainbow Trout Season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi (May 20, 2026), DAR: 30,000 Trout Yearlings Arrive at Puʻu Lua Reservoir (February 12, 2026) and DAR: Annual rainbow trout season at Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi opens June 14 (2025).

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

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.