The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is working hard to improve your catfish populations across the state and to ensure that you are satisfied with your fishing experiences. Currently, TPWD is conducting a survey to better understand the needs, opinions, and characteristics of hand-fishing anglers in Texas.

Results from this survey will be used to improve catfish populations across the state as well as to ensure that the needs and opinions of our hand-fishing anglers are included in future management plans. We certainly value your opinion and will be working hard to make sure your needs are met.

The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes and can be completed online at: https://survey.tpwd.state.tx.us/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=88033o4 .

This survey is completely voluntary and you do not have to answer any question you do not wish to answer. Your responses to this survey will remain strictly confidential and you cannot be identified with your answers.

Lastly, we would appreciate it if you could help us recruit more Texas hand fishers to take this survey. This is a great opportunity for hand fishing anglers to voice their opinions toward catfish management in Texas. However, because hand fishing is so new to Texas, we do not know who our hand-fishing anglers are. We would greatly appreciate it if you could encourage at least 3 of your friends to take this survey. The survey can be found in the website listed above. Provide any additional comments you feel will improve hand fishing or catfish management in Texas. Your responses are greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

Respectfully,

Kris Bodine
Fisheries Research Biologist
Phone (830) 866-3356, ext. 213
Email: Kris.Bodine@tpwd.texas.gov

Done.

Hopefully this survey can be done with a certain level maturity. However, I do feel like the anti noodles will use this as a tool to try and have noodling banned by doing the survey multiple times and flat out lying.

Any one that doesn't agree with hand fishing can go through the survey and just type 0's in the spaces, then at the end there's a box asking for extra comments. I threw in my rambling about it needing to be out lawed there.

Thanks for posting, I am an active hand fisher and I am pleased that a survey was brought forth. But, I don't get the questions about annual income or level of education I have or what ethnicity I am? It seems before the survey is even answered noodlers are already classed as poor dumb rednecks with no education???

Clay

there are way more dumb rednecks that got no business with a boat...or with a R&R for that matter...WAY MORE

Actually, it's a hand fishing survey directed at hand fishing anglers so if you want to answer zeros in everything you'll just skew the data and and make it even more difficult for TPWD to do their job.

But by all means, feel free to continue to be part of the problem ;-)

I hope they didn't ask how many teeth do you have, and are they all yours?

If you want to stick your hand in a fish's mouth, by all means have at it.

ill have to take this survey at the end of the season, me and the family just moved here from topeka, ks about 2 months ago so ive never handfished in texas yet....but hopefully this survey will still be posted at the end of the spawn, pretty sure the spawn is getting close here in the dfw area, been catchin fish bout ready to burst with eggs......theyve been channel cats, but they spawn first, so it doesnt surprise me....

I work at tpwd, and I am a noodler. I have talked to the fisheries guys I've met, and they and they say this survey and the tags on lake Palestine are just for information since noodling is relatively newly legalized in Texas. Some of those guys noodle and I know game wardens that noodle, and none of them want it to become illegal again and say they're pretty sure it will stay legal from now on. Now i can't say that will never happen because I'm in the wildlife department, not fisheries, so I just hear things from the people who work in that department.