If 3 men go fishing on a boat and they each catch a limit of redfish, are they required to be able to identify each persons redfish? Or as long as there is only 9 redfish in the cooler that is fine? I have not been able to find this in the tpwd manual.

I dont think they would go through the trouble of doing so and really dont care when those fishes are legal and tagged when needed.

Been stopped by GW a lots of time. Opened cooler or pull up the stringer to check the fish size then put them back. Never once asked to identify which fish is mine. A while back. An group near me got 1 illegal fish. He asked them who want to take the blame.

No you don't need to tell the GW what fish belongs to who. Just know your limit and and size regs and you'll be fine.

I've shared a cooler with 2 buddies once and was chastised by the GW that 'technically' we should be keeping our fish on our own stringer so he can tell if any one person was over the limit. We were bank fishing for flounder and were one fish shy of a 3 man limit. I thought he was just being jealous cos he was not in uniform and was also fishing but not catching anything. He went back to his truck, got his badge and jacket and came back to give us grief.

I think the term is "party fishing" and it is mentioned in the tpwd manual when using a guide, but I have not found it anywhere else.

My fishing buddies dad just got a ticket for this in another state and I was curios about the Texas rules.

I don't know about bank fishing but in a small boat there isn't room for three coolers. Having trouble understanding how three fishermen can be harassed because they have their fish in the same cooler. If there are less than six fish it don't matter.

Did your dad buddies went to court? The ticket will most likely get dismissed. Family member in CA get at least 2 ticket a year from the same GW for some stupid stuff. Get dismissed in court every time.

I personally show respect to any GW. But there are some just plain.... pain in the [censored]. Big or small boat. I dont see a reason for multiple cooler for each buddy or family member. We either dont take any or split it after the trip anyways.