Texas lowers trout limits to 3……

Lower coast got hammered in the freeze back in ‘21. Otherwise I don’t really know the reason for these new regs other than TP&W doing what they do best and that’s stupid shite. However, my fricks given are practically zero since I go to Big Lake to catch trout. I quit fishing the madhouse around Houston a long time ago.

The guides in Texas drove the limit change. I don’t quite understand why though. They charge a lot of damn money to now only come back with 3 fish per person.

In LA, if they want to do something to help the redfish, they should start with making bow fishing for redfish illegal

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. They charge a lot of damn money to now only come back with 3 fish per person.

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Texas guides are pursuing trophy quality trout. They aren't sitting in a marsh cut with a popping cork. People are paying the money to fish for a 30" not a box of 12"

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Texas guides are pursuing trophy quality trout. They aren't sitting in a marsh cut with a popping cork. People are paying the money to fish for a 30" not a box of 12"

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To each their own, that doesn’t do it for me. I wanna catch fish, otherwise I’d fish freshwater.

I mean I understand what they want.

Those guides want people to come down and wade fish for trophies. And it makes sense. They fish for a living. Catching small trout is boring to them. They would rather catch one 6 pound trout than 40 14 inch trout.

But that’s a kick in the nuts for the casual fishermen. 5 was already lean. I know the ‘21 freeze was a killer but outside of that Texas absolutely has the ability to handle larger limits that 3 or 5.

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But that’s a kick in the nuts for the casual fishermen

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Yeah I could see that. There's an ever increasing number of anglers and those bays are only so big. They have to keep kill numbers in check somehow to sustain a healthy stock.

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Lower coast got hammered in the freeze back in ‘21. Otherwise I don’t really know the reason for these new regs other than TP&W doing what they do best and that’s stupid shite. However, my fricks given are practically zero since I go to Big Lake to catch trout. I quit fishing the madhouse around Houston a long time ago.

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this...big freeze hit them hard. Unlike LA, TX actually looks at their data and decided to lower the limit. In LA, the data has been supporting lower trout limits for over 15 years, but LA is still "studying it".

Houston is the 4th largest city in the US. If just 1% of that population wants to go saltwater fishing, it puts a hurt on the resource. The Houston clientele keeps lots of the charter boats in Big Lake in business.

Anyway, back to the point, fisheries management should entail changing limits ever few years as to what their data shows. TX does this. They lower and raise it when they deem necessary. I don't understand why LA is so intent on trying to keep it the way its always been argument.

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But that’s a kick in the nuts for the casual fishermen. 5 was already lean. I know the ‘21 freeze was a killer but outside of that Texas absolutely has the ability to handle larger limits that 3 or 5.

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I think the point is to get less fishing traffic and cull the guides. About the only place I fish in Texas anymore is down in the Corpus area when we go down to Port A. It is overrun with guides so I can how a vocal majority of guides would want to cull the herd. As for the casual fisherman, who would want to spend that kind of money for 3 fish and maybe a Red? Better off going to Captain D's for a fish basket. Plus, I am sure the guides that specialize in trophy trout down in Baffin and the LM will not care anyway, it was already 5 and they still got traffic. But the kicker is you can also keep 1 fish over 30" which is about like seeing a unicorn or Haley's Comet or the mythical OT10, together. If I did spend the money for a guide, I would keep that guide on the water after I had my 3 just to catch a fish of that caliber just so I could get my moneys worth.

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If bass aren't removed from the pond eventually there will be a ton of small starving bass. If you want decent sized fish in the pond you have to keep removing the smaller ones so the medium sized ones can eat to get bigger.

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Increasing amount of anglers and fish take every single year. They are spreading out the take. Instead of every line taking 5 fish a day they are taking 3.

As you said. These bays aka ponds/lakes can only sustain a certain amount of fish. If you don't reduce take per person then there is an increasing deduction in overall stock year over year. How long does it draw down to where it can't maintain a reasonable level?

I am in Galveston, fish West Galveston Bay 200 times a year and I have no issues with it. I trout fish a few times a year in La and the Gulf Shores area. Obviously this is only anecdotal, but I am typically catching 18-20" trout here, 12-15" trout in La, and 15-20" trout on the AL/FL coast.

When the upper coast of Texas lowered it from 10 to 5 fish per day a few years ago, the size of the average caught fish increased for me. Hopefully we will see this happen again with the lower limit. It is also worth noting, min size here is 15".

Also, I find Texas has a much larger catch and release community. Again, like anything, this is purely anecdotal and I am nowhere near a typical fisherman for this area (exclusively throwing long casts with a topwater on shallow flats, which obviously affects the size/number of fish I catch)