I was looking at Lake Palestine's online page on TPWD...I have fished it many times and have caught an okay amount of fish out it, however I noticed the regulations for catfish are a bit different than here at Lavon and Ray Hubbard... All the times I have been down there I didn't know there was no lentgh limit..is this new? is this true?



Fishing Regulations
For blue and channel catfish, there is no minimum length limit. The combined daily bag and possession limit for both species is 50 fish, of which no more than five can be 20 inches or longer. All other fish are managed under statewide regulations.

Sounds like there are too many little fish in it. There are a few lakes with similar limits.

The revised catfish regulations were recently passed. Over abundance of small fish.

Yes that is true. The regulation is due to a recent survey where they found they had a very abundant population of small channel cat. The limit also helps to protect the population of large blue cats.

so this is not like the crappie on Fork during the winter right? I will be able to throw the small ones back correct? no point in killing them if I wont get decent fillets off of them in my opinion.

Correct. Lake Kirby in Abilene has identical catfish regulations as Palestine. I don't keep anything 98% of the time. Just catch and release usually. They were changed as of Sep 1 of last year.

Okay, great guys, really appreciate it....I dont want to get into any trouble...That seems fair

And when it says 5 fish over 20 inches, does that mean I can have % channels over 20 inches as well as 5 blues over 20 inches, doubt I would get 5 channels over 20 inches but you never know and once again I dont want a ticket lol

No, blues and channels are lumped together when it comes to your catfish limit. People do not keep enough small channels, so lake Palestine has a huge population of fish in the less than 20" size, counting channels and blues. It has some good blues in it, ran some jugs last year and couldn't get anything under 20" even using small baits.

what about flatheads are you allowed to keep five of them within the normal regs? or are all three lumped together as usual

All I fish for is blues but would like to run some jugs while r&r from the kayak for channels. What y'all use for bait. And where should I go

Flatheads are 5 + in most lakes.

You're allowed to keep 25 blues/channels combination and the 5 flatheads can be in addition to the 25 blues/channels.

from what i read in my manuel with my fishing license it was stated you can keep 25 catfish in any combination and you can only have 25 total on any lake with only 5 being flatheads of the legal length of 18 inches or over, so you can have 20 blues and channels but only five flatheads, they have special regs for certain lakes like some have slots on them, where you cant keep any in between two lengths like 18 or below or 40 and up, it is clearly outlined in the regs only 5 flatheads can be kept, and only 25 total by each person unless specifically said otherwise in the handbook

They're talking about Palestine specifically, which is a 50 fish limit of channels or blues. I don't see anything in the regs about flattys though so if there are even any in there, I would assume the normal state regulations still hold true for them.