Legal or illegal? I looked all over Texas parks and wild life for a defiant answer and can't find anything.

If bluegill are illegal, then i dont wanna be right....lol. Seriously though, they are a legal bait and one of the best catfish baits you can find. They are classified as a baitfish and therefore are able to be used, no limit on how many you can have on you or their size. It is fish that are classified as gamefish that are illegal to use, such as Bass and channel or blue catfish. Ironically, the mudcat or hardhead (not to be confused with the yellowcat) are also legal and very good bait. I prefer to use them live on trotlines or juglines though they also make very good bait on the rod and reel. I also like them because you can cover different fisherman with them in that i usually take my little sister out fishing for bluegill and then just keep all we catch to use as bait on my lines. Hope this helps!!!

They're a great live and cut bait!!

I've been using them over cut shad as of late. Shad have been hard to find. They work great.

They are BAIT in Texas,no limits or restrictions like they have in some other States

Legal bait, and boy do they taste good!

AFTER JULY 1ST: Personally caught live bait can be used in the water body where it was caught.

I think they're every bit as good if not better than crappie

+1

A 16 in live crappie is hard to beat for monster blues, but I will steal the thread now we know bluegill are legal to ask..........what is the best way/most productive to cut up a bluegill? Head? Tail? Center chunk with gut sac? Fillet? Seriously OP do NOT use crappie for bait.

I like to cut bluegill in to 3-4 chunk, head, midsection, tail. I prefer the 3-5" live ones...

I wouldn't trade a 16 inch crappie for a world record blue cat. Even if it was legal to use them as bait. Incidentally, in oklahoma it's perfectly legal as long as the crappie was caught by legal means.

I believe the loop hole in that is, as long as you transport in different water, you can still catch the bait elsewhere.

Here is what I got straight from TPWD today



inld <inld@tpwd.texas.gov>

9:25 AM (8 hours ago)

We know this new rule will take some getting used to, and will cause some inconvenience for boaters and anglers. However, please know that it was not our intent to harass the fishing public. We're trying to stop an invasive pest that could make things REALLY inconvenient for everyone who enjoys water recreation in Texas.

The important point here is NOT to transfer water from one lake, pond or river to another.
The way the law is written, it applies to water in a boat or in any receptacle on a boat.

So let's say you catch some bluegill in a local lake, or maybe in your own stock pond.
If you put them in some water in a cooler or bait bucket in your vehicle, when you get to the lake where you want to fish, you could scoop the fish out with a net and put them in another receptacle in your boat (livewell or a different creel bucket) and fill the new container with lake water. It's OK to transfer the fish, but you can't put the WATER you brought from the other place in your boat.

You could transport your bait (in the vehicle) in water from your well, or some tap water that's been treated to get the chlorine out, or even water from your own stock pond. But you can't carry fish away from a public lake or pond in water from that lake. And if you're driving around with a cooler of fish in tap water, the game warden who might stop you on the way to the lake doesn't know where you got that water, so you still can't take it on your boat. (Unless you bought it at a bait shop and you have a receipt that says their water is OK, as mentioned in the news release.)

Dyanne Fry Cortez
Web Coordinator, Inland Fisheries Division
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
(512) 389-8055

when I use bluegill for bait (which is a lot) I cut them up differently depending on what size fish I'm after. If I want fish for my freezer or the deep fryer, then I scale them, cut the fins off and chop em up into appropriately sized pieces. If I'm target monster blues then I cut off the dorsal fin (the spiny one) and use them whole and live.

I've always heard that blue cats like to swallow their fish head first so I usually hook them towards the back leaving good hook exposure.

Hope this helps