This came to mind while cleaning a mess of channels the other day.Is it legal to us the livers(or other parts) of a catfish for bait? I searched the TPWD web site and could not get an answer,but I remember hearing something about using game fish as bait being illegal.

It is illegal to use any part of a game fish for bait. I don't understand why the generally accepted parts that are not edible cannot be used but the law is what it is...

Would the GW see your bait and realize it was even a fish liver I doubt it, but who knows.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/

When in doubt, refer to the manual.

Well then I will continue frying them!

I think it's one of those things that yes, it is a waste not to be able to use the guts, eyeballs, trimmings, etc. for bait. However, they probably decided there would be too much gray area as far as what is and is not allowed, and that there would be too many that would kill any crappie they catch just to use for bait because how is the GW going to prove that that 1" square chunk of crappie is undersized, or that the liver out of the catfish came from a legal catfish? There's plenty of other baits out there that work fine.