Hawaii does not close a season on its reef fish. The closures it does run are on the invertebrates, and they are the ones worth knowing before you put anything in a bag: lobster and Kona crab are shut through the summer.
Every season we have verified in Hawaii
4 rules for 4 species, as Hawaii DAR publishes them. The band under each heading is the legal season; the row under it is our own monthly activity curve.
Lobster β Ula, the spiny lobster
Closed season May to August. No spearing, and the animal must be whole and not mutilated β you cannot take the tail and leave the rest. Females may not be taken or killed at any time. Slipper lobster, ula pΔpapa, runs the same May-to-August closure at 2ΒΎ inches tail width, and may not be taken with eggs.
- Size
- 3ΒΌ inches carapace length.
Crab β PΔpaΚ»i kualoa, the Kona crab
Closed May to September, a month longer than the lobster. No spearing. The other crabs are managed by size instead: Samoan crab at six inches across the back with no females taken, and the white or haole crab at four inches with no egg-bearing females.
- Size
- 4 inches carapace length.
Oyster β Clams, oysters and other shellfish
The regulation is two words long: "Season closed; taking prohibited." There is no window. Sea cucumbers are limited to ten per person per day for personal use with commercial take banned, and stony coral may not be taken, broken or damaged at all.
Trout β Licence requirements
Non-residents need a Nonresident Recreational Marine Fishing License to fish in the sea here, and a Freshwater Game Fishing License is required for certain freshwater species β including the trout on Kauai, where PuΚ»u Lua Reservoir runs a genuine stocked trout season, which surprises most people about Hawaii.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources. Legal dates were read on the agencyβs own page on the date shown beside each entry. Seasons change: the agency link is always the last word.
What the water is doing while the season is open
This is the part an agency page will not tell you. The temperature row above is the seasonal curve we use for the 12 of 13 Hawaii waters we track on a hawaii pelagic profile, and it is why an opening date and a fishable date are not the same thing. On that curve the water is below 50 F in no month and at 70 F or more in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December; it is an estimate for the water type, not a reading.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 12 Hawaii waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Kona β Hawaii County
- Kaneohe Bay β Honolulu County
- Hilo Bay β Hawaii County
- Maalaea Bay β Maui County
- Hanalei Bay β Kauai County
- Kailua Bay β Honolulu County
- Waianae Coast β Honolulu County
- Waimea Bay β Honolulu County
- Nawiliwili Bay β Kauai County
- Kaunakakai β Maui County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. Hawaii requires a licence from age 9, and residents pay from $5.00 against $25.00 for visitors. What a Hawaii licence costs and where to buy it β
Questions
When does fishing season open in Hawaii?
It depends on the species: lobster closed may 1 to august 31; crab closed may 1 to september 30; oyster closed for the rest of the year. Every date on this page was read off Hawaii DAR on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in Hawaii?
Yes. Hawaii requires a fishing licence from age 9, from $5.00 for residents.
Are these Hawaii dates going to change?
Some of them, and the page says which. Dates written as a rule in the regulations are calculated here for 2026, so they follow the rule rather than going stale. Dates the agency sets each year are shown as exactly that, with no calendar band, because inventing one would be worse than leaving it empty.