AUSTIN- The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for both Texas and federal waters will close 30 minutes after sunset on Saturday, May 15, 2021until a still-to-be determined date in July. While the statutory opening date for the gulf season is July 15, the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will be sampling shrimp populations this summer to determine the optimum opening date.
AUSTIN- The private recreational angler red snapper season in federal water opens Tuesday, June 1, 2021. Bag and size limits will remain unchanged. The regulations are 2 fish per person daily with a 16-inch minimum size limit in federal waters, and 4 fish per person daily with a 15-inch minimum in state waters. Red snapper caught in federal waters count as part of the state bag limit of 4 fish. No more than 4 red snapper may be in your possession while fishing in state waters and no more than 2 in federal waters.
ATHENS — The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center is hosting the first statewide virtual 5K “Spring Spawning Run” to celebrate the fish spawning season and recognize the importance of state fish hatchery efforts to enhance the fisheries resources and fishing opportunities for more than two million anglers in Texas. This year’s 5k run will take place virtually the entire month of May, which means participants can show their support from anywhere in the state at their own pace.
AUSTIN – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has detected invasive zebra mussels at Lake Brownwood in the Colorado River Basin, southeast of Abilene. Zebra mussel larvae were detected in plankton samples collected at two sites approximately three miles apart at Lake Brownwood in November. This is the second lake in the Upper Colorado River Basin where zebra mussels have now been detected, which indicates this species is continuing to spread westward.
AUSTIN – Spring is in the air and with that comes one of Texas’ best spring traditions, angling for catfish. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Neighborhood Fishin’ program enables friends and families to stay close to home, enjoy time in the outdoors, and have the chance to reel in a catfish.
ATHENS – The 2021 Toyota ShareLunker collection season will go in the books as one of the best in the history of the program. Anglers landed 23 ShareLunkers at 10 different lakes across the state, the most during a January through March timespan since the 1995 season which produced 27. Five new lake records were established, four lakes made their mark on the program with a first ever entry, and milestone ShareLunker 600 was caught in this year’s group.
AUSTIN — The Texas Master Naturalist Program will present an “Impacts of Winter Storm Uri on Texas Fish and Wildlife” webinar on April 13 covering the storm’s impact on fish and wildlife, their recovery and fish and wildlife management efforts moving forward.
ATHENS – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens has partnered with Fishing’s Future and the George H.W. Bush Vamos A Pescar Education Fund to provide convenient fishing education opportunities for families throughout Texas.
ATHENS – Anglers delivered three more Legacy Lunkers last Tuesday followed by a fourth Sunday during the final weekend of the 2021 Toyota ShareLunker season. Tuesday marked the second triple Lunker day of the season, with O.H. Ivie producing the first two Lunkers of the day, extending an incredible run that has bumped the season total for that lake to 12.
AUSTIN- Winter weather the week of Feb. 14, 2021 led to fish kill events along the entire Texas coast. Freezing events along the Texas Coast are rare, but extreme cold temperatures can be a natural cause of fish kills. If fish do not make it to refuge in deeper, more temperature stable water in cold weather, they may die when water temperatures reach a certain threshold. After the first fish kill was reported in the Lower Laguna Madre, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) biologists began the process of assessing fish kills across multiple bay systems over the course of two weeks.