Cook Inlet pot boats get back into state-waters cod on Sept. 1

Cook Inlet pot boats, shut out of the state-waters Pacific cod fishery since March 14, can go back Sept. 1. Fish and Game closes the jig-only season at 12:01 am that day and reopens it immediately to all legal gear types, meaning pots and jigs. Longline gear is not legal in state waters.

The reopening comes with 339,000 pounds of the jig sector's guideline harvest level still unharvested.

Twelve hours later, at noon, the separate Cook Inlet parallel Pacific cod season opens to longline hook vessels under 50 feet, timed to the federal "B" season.

The revised 2026 state-waters guideline harvest level is 2,375,371 pounds, with 85 percent allocated to pot vessels and 15 percent to jig vessels. The season closes Dec. 31 or when that level is reached, whichever comes first.

Jig underharvest is not new. Roughly 190,000 pounds of the jig allocation remained late in the 2025 season, according to the department's October report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Cook Inlet is an exclusive registration area. A vessel registered here may not take Pacific cod in another exclusive or superexclusive area during a state-waters season, and cannot be redesignated nonexclusive until after Oct. 30. Operators must register before fishing either opening.