This has been bothering me. I just posted the same question on the hunting forum for hunting, but now I am curious about fishing. If I take my 2 sons fishing, and for a change we actually catch fish, do we get one combined bag limit, or do we get three?

Three as long as the kids are fishing.

Combined limit on seperate stringers unless its a livewell of course and they must be fishing.

thanks

TP&W 2011-2012 Regulations Summary
Under 17 do not need a fishing license. Didn't find the answer to your question specially in the bag limits or regs, but the others are right, each person fishing gets their own limit of fish. Check each lake for specifics and here's the statewide freshwater bag limits.

One limit per fisherman.

Not combined. Eveyone can retain their limit. If they're under 17, they don't need a license. As stated, they must be fishing though. You show up with three limits and a bunch of play toys in the bottom of the boat, the Game Warden may not believe your kids were fishing. In other words, you cannot take two kids fishing and catch/retain their limits yourself. They must catch their own regardless of age.

Yep, that's the way the GW explained it to me. The kids have to catch their own limit, you catch yours. Granted, in some cases it might be hard to prove who caught what if your kids are fishing too and you're tossing your catch into the cooler or livewell (which would be normal if you plan on keeping your catch in the summer). I'm guessing if the GW wanted to inquire further, he would ask the kiddo how many they caught, most kids won't lie and give an honest guess if they do not know exactly.

Many a game laws violating father has been tripped up by their child's innocence (honesty)!

usually with kids you end up not catching that many because you're busy messing with them.

How true. When I take my kids fishing, I usually just make sure they are good to go. Changing lures for them as needed to figure out what's working best, taking fish off their lines or putting bait on for them (and casting it out if we're using Daddy's baitcasting stuff for bigger catfish). I will occasionally toss a bait out if things are slow, just to up our odds or help figure things out faster. But when it comes catching time, my line is in the boat and I'm is assist mode!

Thanks for the help. I was thinking of taking them trout fishing in abilene this weekend and wanted to know how many we could keep. I by no means expect to catch 15, but might catch 6 (and it would be great if they caught 3 a piece). Never know until you try.

5 trout per person