An essential component of any mark and recapture study that seeks to estimate fish population abundance, exploitation rates, or migration rates from tagging data is the tag-reporting rate. We obtained tag-reporting rates for the sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria fishery during 1980–1998 by comparing tag returns in the fishery to tag returns from a scientific survey where all tag recoveries were assumed to be reported. Analytical formulae were derived for the measurement error associated with the estimates. When pooled over geographic areas or years, estimates of reporting rates were reasonably precise with coefficients of variation (CVs) usually less than 25%. Reporting rates were highest in the central (0.385) and eastern (0.315) Gulf of Alaska, intermediate in the western Gulf of Alaska (0.269), and lowest in the Aleutians (0.174) and Bering Sea (0.169). Rates pooled over all areas increased from lows of 0.102–0.248 in 1980–1982 to a peak of 0.465 in 1985 before declining to 0.199 in 1986 and 0.157 in 1987. The reporting rate increased gradually and fluctuated between 0.376 and 0.450 since 1995. The increase in reporting in 1995 was coincidental with the implementation of the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system. The linear increase in reporting rates during 1986–1998 was significant. Factors that may have influenced the reporting rate were the number of tags available for recovery, the length of the commercial fishing season, the presence of scientific observers on commercial vessels, and the tag reward program. Pooled over all years and areas the tag-reporting rate has been 0.276 with a CV of 4.2%.