I was thinking about some of the more obscure rules for Lake Grapevine.

1) Cleaning Fish - does anyone know the rule? Guts only in trash, in water from shore, or in water from boat OK?

2) Foul Hook - is right outside corner of mouth or below lower lip considered an illegal hook (I realize this rule would be statewide). This happens now and then jigging for Crappie.

3) Minnow Traps - Legal to use at all? Certain minnows you aren't able to keep? I would assume game fish fry are illegal to keep and use for bait.

Anything else normally wouldn't think about?

so 61 views and no answers, guess I will contact the local Parks & Wildlife. seems like most don't know the exact rules either.

1) I dont clean very many fish these days, so I cant tell you for sure what the regs are. I know you cant clean them while on the water.

2) A Foul Hook is Texas is 100% legal as long as its not done intentionally, then its called snagging and that is illegal.

3) I am primarily a bass fisherman, I dont think I've seen a minnow trap since I was a kid so I cant help you there.

Keep in mind that your 60+ views could have been from people from anywhere in the nation, you asked about Grapevine which is not a very well known lake once you get out of the DFW area.

1 - This was an issue a couple of years ago. Some were told by the Game Warden who regularly patrols Lake Grapevine that you couldn't even tie up the boat to the dock and clean fish. They were also told not to toss guts in to the lake. That means a.) no cleaning fish from your boat since it's illegal anyways to have freshly filleted fillets in your boat on the water and they are now including tieing up to the boat dock to fillet fish within that stipulation and b.) no tossing guts in to the lake.

2 - Foul hooking is more of an intent, I would think, than anything. If you are actively trying to catch a fish and your hook gets them on the outside of the mouth, that is not foul hooking. If you are tossing out a big treble hook with intent to foul hook a fish, that's illegal.
However, if you were to sincerely foul hook a fish in the back (do it topwater fishing for sandbass all the time) or in the tail, then that could be considered a foul hooked fish. Again, your intent was not to foul hook the fish, it just worked out that way. Thus, I think you could win that one in court.

3 - I don't know the actual legal specifics of trapping minnows et al but I know that if you are seining or netting shad and such, all game fish have to be thrown back. I would suspect that minnow trapping is the same thing unless there are specific laws due to the 'trapping' environment vs 'netting. Email the Game Warden. They'll tell you all the answers that you seek.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the info! I have email off to lake biologist, I couldn't find a Game Warden contact. I searched all the TPWD and Core of Engineers rules I could find and nothing. Not sure what rules the Game Wardens are enforcing for fish cleaning.

Looks like Minnow Traps are legal if certain size and non-gamefish. I found that in TPWD rules.

Growing up in Kansas I believe any foul hooked fish had to be thrown back, so a little different down here.

Thought of another question, there is a limit of 3 poles per person now, right?

Hi Rob,

No there is not a 3 rod limit. In Texas there is a 100 hook limit on all devices combined. So if you wanted to you could use 100 rods with one hook each at the same time and still be legal.

The only exception to this is on community fishing lakes where you are limited to two rods per person.

I've spent a couple weeks talking to the area Game Warden and the Core of Engineers.

basically for Grapevine...

Game Warden only cares you don't have filets over water (boat or boat house). Doesn't care if you throw guts in water or have it over water.

Core of Engineers doesn't "enforce" any gut disposal rules, but doesn't want people throwing in the park trash cans or out on the land. They don't care if you throw the guts in the water.

It is possible a particular city has its own rules.