I have been hearing a lot of talk about it. When does it take place. It is suppose to be for Blues

As far as I know it's not a ten lb rule but a slot of can't keep blues between 30 and 45 inches. A ten lb fish is usually close to thirty inches. The slot is only in affect on Lewisville, Waco and Richland chambers I believe so far.

The Slot Test is in it's 6th year of a 10 year study according to a biologist I talked to this Summer. (Release all between 30" and 45", and keep any unders) He raved about the results so far on Richland Chambers and my Son and I can testify that RC is an AWESOME catfish lake. Both Blues and Channels have been even easier to catch for several years. The amount of small Blues in the Lake is mind blowing in that you can graph about any hump or point on the Main Lake in the Summer and it's literally covered up. The larger fish are more plentiful too according to the biologist's surveys and while we fish mainly for "Eaters", we normally catch a 10lb. to 40lb. fish or two on every outing this time of the year thru the early Spring.

This biologist's opinion was that the Slot would be implemented in many more lakes in the next few years. Hard to argue with the facts and appears that releasing fish in their prime reproductive years works to produce both quantity and quality catfish. I personally like the approach and believe it will help improve fishing for the longterm.

Good Luck!

I have heard similar reports from Waco as gone fishin has on RC. From what I have heard from biologist and also witnessed with my own eyes on the lake, the slot is working very well. We just need to be sure to take our share, and then some more of "eater" size fish out of the lake.

I agree with Royce. It's amazing how many catfish are in RC now. The other thing I like is the way TP&W has gone about the implementation of this slot limit. They have taken considerable data from the test lakes and now have a very good idea what to expect when this is implemented on other lakes. That is the way any new regulation should be approached. I wish the Gulf Coast council would take some notes from TP&W on this. They could certainly learn a thing or two if they were willing.

Better at winning the slots on the lakes than in the casino's!

I am not saying it is not working, but I haven't seen positive results yet on Lewisville. If you look at the reservoir survey creel surveys, it claims a very small amount of angling hours directed towards catfishing and a 100% harvest rate. I often wonder where they take these creel surveys, and a few years back I got PM from a mod after I suggested (in jest) that they take these surveys on the soft plastics aisle at Academy.

There was one biologist that did an in-depth survey of Lake Tawakoni anglers, and his results might bring the slot to Lake Tawakoni, but I doubt it is going state wide. The fact is TPWD has not stocked in blue catfish in 2014, and it appears that blue catfish hatchery operations have been suspended for the time being. That is terrible when you consider the state has a parks and wildlife surplus approaching $100M. I have told this story before, but a federal excise tax (paid by the manufacturer) is levied on all hunting, fishing, and camping equipment produced in the United States. This includes all firearms and ammunition. This money is distributed to the states based and federal law prohibits the state legislature from using these funds for any purpose other than parks and wildlife. So the legislature can't touch the giant windfall the latest guns and ammo shortage panic buying created, but they are not forced to allocate it to Texas Parks and Wildlife. This is when the trickery comes in, the state constitution requires the budget to be balanced, so if the legislature wants to spend more money than it has coming in on something like Medicaid or welfare, they have to find a surplus somewhere else. In cases like the fund that is used to provide power to the elderly and indigent poor (check your electric bill for fee), they can actually use the interest the giant fund generates; however, in the case of the parks and wildlife fund, they can't actually touch it or the interest so they are just holding it hostage so they "balance" the budget.

I would have to disagree on Lewisville, Brian. I believe there may be an upswing of larger fish.

Brian, I specifically asked a TPWD biologist a couple months back why no blues have been stocked this year. His answer was blue catfish reproduce fast enough that there is no need to stock them. They only stock them in each lake a couple times to get them introduced to the lake and the population will take off from there. He also said most of our lakes already have an overabundance of small blues in them. The issue is giving the fish more time to grow, rather than a need to introduce more fish. 2 of the main factors in growing big blues are food and time. Getting too many fish in a lake can cut down on the amount of food available. We need to do our part to take OUT the smaller fish to keep the population down, and return the larger fish to continue to grow.

Just like managing a ranch for trophy whitetails. Must take out a certain amount of does each year to keep the population in check.

That's been a rule since I was a kid not a law,anything above 10 lbs pic and release to fight another day!

Makes sense to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't catfish produce between 1500-3000 eggs per pound of body weight. Maintaining bigger fish in a lake system produces an abundance of good catfishing. In my opinion small cats 1/2 pound to 2 pounds are best for eating.

You would know better than me, but I am still catching a lot of small blues on Lewisville. I still don't know why they haven't put up any signs to keep the honest people honest. I think it is a case of the people that know about the regulation wouldn't harvest those fish anyway. I have personally advised a couple of anglers about the regulation that seemed to be law abiding people but just didn't bother to read the fine print of the regulations manual.

Tawakoni and Lavon both received heavy post impoundment stockings and they are known for producing big fish. When Bob Sandlin because the next big catfish lake my theory will be proven correct.

I am not sure I totally buy into the story why no blues where stocked this year. If that was the case than blue catfish would not have been stocked every year for the last 30+ years. I think the real story is budget cuts and the closing of the West Texas hybrid hatchery due to drought. That production had to be moved to East Texas and it seems the blue catfish got the boot. There was also the problem with the faulty construction at the new hatchery that took a bunch of time to fix. If the legislature would stop holding the funds hostage, the hat very could be expanded.

No biologist here, but caught a nice 5 lb blue the other day and it was loaded with mussels in it's stomach and it's digestive tract. Them big one's just might be a good answer to the zebra mussels. These slots maybe good in a lot of ways.

From what I've read, predators have very little impact on their numbers. They do impact the mortality of the mussels, but they reproduce so fast and so often that it doesn't really make much difference. Basically, there's almost the same number of zebra mussels, but they just don't get very old. I'm all for fish eating them though. At least they are food for quite a few species. Freshwater drum eat the hell out of them, and so do crawfish. Lots of fish then eat those crawfish. If they infest a lake, they tend to move the food chain towards the bottom.