Texas’ million-plus hunters heading afield this autumn will see liberalized regulations governing the hunting of white-tailed deer, the longest dove season in at least 80 years, a slightly later opening of duck season in the state’s North and South zones and a continuation of a two-decade run of generous waterfowl hunting bag limits and season lengths.
Later this year, the state’s 2 million recreational anglers also will fall under a smattering of new rules, including the restitution of an inadvertently removed maximum length limit for black drum and a loosening of largemouth bass regulations in the southeast corner of the state.
The changes were part of the 2016-17 statewide hunting and fishing proclamation, the annual listing of hunting and fishing regulations, adopted Thursday by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Beginning Sept. 1, the effective date of the regulation changes, anglers fishing in the near-coastal freshwater fisheries of four Southeast Texas counties and the lower Sabine River will see the minimum length requirement for largemouth bass reduced to 12 inches from the current statewide minimum of 14 inches.
