Huge changes are coming to the Texas fishing and hunting landscape beginning Sept. 1, 2019, including a statewide five-fish limit for speckled trout, a new mandatory kill-switch law for motor boats 26 feet or less in length, and a change to feral hog hunting license requirements on private lands.
Back in 2014, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department enacted a five-fish limit for speckled trout in effect in the Lower Laguna Madre up the coast through the Highway 457 bridge near Sargent. The move was mostly met with positive commentary from fishing guides and the general public, though some outlying opinions suggested an overreach on government authority.
At the time, TPWD offered overwhelming data showing that the reduction in the trout limit along the Middle and Lower Coasts would benefit the overall fishery, which certainly has seen an increase in fishing pressure from both guided and non-guided fishing parties.
‘Kali’s Law’ requiring kill switches on boats 26 feet or less in Texas begins Sept. 1
Kali’s Law came about after the death of Kali Gorzell, 16, who died after being struck and killed by the propellor of a boat after being ejected in an accident near Dagger Island in the Aransas Pass area in 2012. This law complements the required use of a kill switch for personal watercrafts, making Texas one of seven states with a mandatory kill-switch law for powerboats.
During discussion on the bill in this year’s legislative session, a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department official testified, and gave an alarming estimate: Of the 29 fatal boating accidents reported in Texas last year, the agency believes 26 might have been prevented if a kill switch had been used.
Texas hog hunting can be done without a hunting license in September
On May 31, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 317, authored by state Senator Bryan Hughes, of Mineola, which will allow the hunting of feral hogs without a license on private lands with landowner consent. The bill unanimously passed the state Senate on April 11. In the House, the bill near unanimous support, with seven abstains and only two no votes.
Feral hogs in Texas continue to generate headlines for all the wrong reasons. The invasive species has taken root across most of the state and the population only continues to grow. A report from research conducted by Texas A&M University in 2010 showed what the time was an alarming problem: if left unchecked, the state’s feral hog tally – which was averaged at roughly 2.6 million animals – will more than triple in five years. That report was done using landowner surveys from 139 of Texas’ 254 counties, showing that the estimated reduction on feral hogs statewide from trapping, hunting and other methods was 753,646, or 29 percent of the population. Even at that same harvest rate, the report stated that the population would still double in five years.
Remember, this was back in 2010 and by all accounts there are now wild swine found in nearly every county of the state.
Also effective Sept. 1, in most cases hunters will not be required to carry their original paper hunting and fishing licenses with them to the field. House Bill 547 by State Rep. Terry Canales (Edinburg) allows licensees to use a photograph of their physical license to serve as verification of a valid license while hunting any game that doesn’t need a tag, such as doves. Hunters must still carry their physical license with them for deer and turkey hunts; also anglers must carry a fishing license if they want to retain an oversized red drum, since they require a physical tag.
