Alabama Administrative Code
Title 220 - ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 220-2 - GAME AND FISH DIVISION
Section 220-2-.35 - Seasons, Creel And Size Limits For Fish On Public Waters Or Banks Thereof
Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 11, August 30, 2024
(1) The following seasons for taking fish in accordance with the below stated times, places, manners and restrictions are hereby established. Unless noted below, the seasons for all designated game and commercial fish are open continuously.
(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to take or have in possession more than the daily limit for any fish as established herein. This shall not apply to fish held live for release by the sponsor or its designated agent after a bonafide fishing tournament provided they are released unharmed to the public waters from which they were taken as soon as reasonably possible on the same day they were taken. This does not obligate the sponsor or its designated agent to release dead or dying fish.
(3) Except as otherwise noted, it shall be unlawful to possess any fish less than or greater than size restrictions as established herein. Size restrictions on all fish are determined by measuring from the front of the mouth to the tip of the tail with both mouth and tail closed. Except as otherwise provided for certain State and Federally owned and/or managed fishing lakes and ponds, the daily creel, possession limits and size restrictions for fish in all public waters of this State shall be as follows:
Daily Creel and Possession Limit
Includes combinations of largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Alabama, shoal and those species formerly known as "redeye" bass, which are now known separately as Coosa, Warrior, Cahaba, Tallapoosa and Chattahoochee bass, based on their respective drainages. The Alabama bass was formerly known as spotted bass in the Mobile drainage. No more than 5 of the daily creel limit of 10 may be smallmouth bass. See exceptions for shoal bass in specific tributaries of the Chattahoochee River.
It shall be illegal to take or attempt to take walleye by any method from Sweetwater Lake located in the Talladega National Forest, Cleburne County, from White Plains Lake (also known as Whitesides Mill Lake), Calhoun County and from Shoal Creek upstream of White Plains Lake, Calhoun and Cleburne Counties. It shall also be illegal to take or attempt to take walleye by any method from Lake Mitchell on the Coosa River between Mitchell Dam and Lay Dam or from its tributary streams, Walnut Creek in Chilton County, Hatchet Creek in Coosa and Clay Counties, Weogufka Creek in Coosa County, the Mulberry Fork River and the Sipsey Fork River or any of their tributary streams in Blount, Cullman, Lawrence, Walker, and Winston Counties or the Duck River Reservoir in Cullman County. Any walleye taken in these lakes or streams shall immediately be released back into the waters from which they were taken with least possible harm.
It is illegal to possess any Sauger less than 15 inches in total length.
No more than five of the 15 may exceed 22 inches in total length. See exceptions for Lewis Smith, Inland, Yates, and Thurlow reservoirs and Lake Martin.
It is illegal to possess any crappie less than nine inches in total length taken from Alabama public waters, including Aliceville Reservoir and effective October 1, 2001, Pickwick Reservoir. Waters exempt from the nine-inch crappie limit include impoundments less than 500 surface acres, and the reciprocal waters of the Chattahoochee River and Impoundments and their tributaries, Bear Creek Reservoir (Big Bear Lake of the B.C.D.A. Lakes), Lake Jackson at Florala and Weiss Reservoir.) See exception for Weiss Reservoir.
This size limit shall not apply to catfish harvested from the Perdido, Conecuh, Blackwater, Yellow, Choctawhatchee, Chipola, and Chattahoochee rivers basins. It shall be unlawful to transport live catfish 34 inches in length or greater beyond the boundaries of this state.
It shall be unlawful to fish with more than two rods or to cull from the creel any trout caught from the Sipsey Fork from Lewis Smith Dam downstream to the confluence with the Mulberry Fork. (See Paragraph 5 for definition of culling).
All alligator gar caught with commercial fishing gear must be immediately returned to the water with the least possible harm.
All sturgeon must be immediately returned to the water with the lease possible harm.
All paddlefish must be immediately returned to the water with the least possible harm.
(4) SIZE LIMITS - As provided for above, as posted in State and Federally owned and/or managed public fishing lakes and ponds, and as follows:
(5) For the purposes of this regulation in paragraphs (3)(l), (4) (f), and (4)(i), "culling" shall be defined as removing and releasing a fish from the creel (live well, stringer, basket, bucket, cooler, or other container) whether it is replaced or not.
Author: Christopher M. Blankenship
Statutory Authority: Code of Ala. 1975, §§ 9-2-7, 9-2-8, 9-2-12.
Penalty: As provided by law.
