re: Trout regulations back to square one

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Anecdotally, fish numbers have seemed to greatly reduced in the past 5 years

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I grew up fishing in the easy 12/25 limits of La. in the 80's but have been in the Hou/Galveston area since the early 90's.

It was 15" and 10 here forever until recently going to 15"/5 on the upper coast and a hugely controversial 15"/3 on the lower coast.

The fishery here is laughable when compared to Louisiana. Without hardly any marsh to speak of, less number of guided trips, and no pogey boats, its apples to airplanes. That said, fishing West Bay of Galveston exclusively, the number of 15" plus trout caught here has always been more plentiful than in my trips/reports from Louisiana. But, surprising to me, the number of significantly larger fish has increased exponentially since the lower bag limit. While it was rare to catch a 10 fish limit, it isn't rare at all to catch the 5 fish these days, and unheard of to not have at least one 20" fish when you do.

I have always believed a larger minimum length directly results in larger fish overall no matter which area being discussed, but I was a little surprised to see even larger fish with the even lower bag limit. Obviously this is anecdotal as well, and I do target larger fish as a rule, but I haven't heard any different from the dozens of people I know who consistently fish in this area.