Licenses & Seasons

All public streams, lakes, and ponds are open to fishing throughout the year, except for some state-owned and state-managed public fishing lakes. It is illegal to fish in private waters without permission.

The Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources sets the hunting season in the state. Generally, statewide, the deer season runs from mid-October through January. In most counties throughout the Black Belt region, the season extends two weeks into February. The WFF also sets specific bag limits.

Alabama has a large population of Eastern Wild Turkey concentrated in Alabama’s Black Belt Region. The state has one of the most generous bag limits in the country – one per day, four per spring season – and the spring hunting season is one of the longest in the nation, beginning the third week in March and concluding after the first whole week of May. Clarke and Monroe counties have a fall season.

Much of the bobwhite quail hunting in Alabama now takes place on commercial hunting preserves. Lodges in the Black Belt region provide bird hunts in various styles, including the traditional mule-drawn wagon, horseback, quail buggies, and walk hunts. The season generally runs from mid-October through March 30. There are still some public lands where quail are still a prized quarry.

Wild hogs are becoming more prevalent in Alabama, including in the Black Belt, and are destructive to the state’s wildlife habitat. Wild hog hunting is open season in the state. There is a large population of these feral pests in the Black Belt’s Wildlife Management Areas and many of the lodges offer hog hunting packages.

Alabama’s alligator population has grown to the extent that they pose a nuisance in many areas. Implementing a regulated alligator hunt on a small scale is an important step toward controlling populations and better managing this unique reptile.