Round 2: A 4‐Year Follow‐Up Evaluation of a Flathead Catfish Population Exposed to Hand Fishing

Abstract

AbstractThe 2011 legalization of hand fishing for catfishes in Texas prompted the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to conduct a model‐based evaluation of the potential impacts on size structure and dynamic rates of the Flathead Catfish Pylodictis olivaris in Lake Palestine, Texas. Results predicted that impacts by hand fishers would be minimal and that the preexisting harvest regulation of 5 fish/d with a 457‐mm minimum length limit was sufficient to maintain fishery quality. Despite these findings, TPWD fisheries staff continued to have concerns about potential overharvest. In response to this concern, we conducted a follow‐up evaluation in April 2018 to determine whether population characteristics, such as relative abundance or size‐related metrics, had changed since the previous evaluation in 2014. Sampling was conducted with low‐frequency electrofishing via similar procedures used in the previous study. We found no significant changes in any metric examined. Total catch rates and the catch rates of trophy‐sized fish were not significantly different. Length frequency distributions were also similar, and no differences were observed in mean TL or any proportional size distribution measurement. These findings corroborate those from the 2014 study and also suggest that hand fishing has had no measurable effect on Flathead Catfish abundance or size‐related metrics in Lake Palestine from 2014 through 2018.