How to Catch Redfish in Texas

Find them tailing on shallow grass and oyster on a moving tide. That part is the same anywhere on the Gulf coast — a redfish in Texas behaves like a redfish in Florida.

The rules do not travel at all. Texas runs a 20–28 inch slot with a three-fish daily bag. Florida allows one fish, 18–27 inches. If you learned redfish in Florida and drove west, almost every number you know is now wrong.

The regulations, from TPWD

Valid 1 September 2026 through 31 August 2027, per TPWD's own Outdoor Annual, read 31 August 2026.

Two details on the tags, in TPWD's wording:

During a license year, one red drum over the stated maximum length limit may be retained when affixed with a properly completed Red Drum Tag and one red drum over the stated maximum length limit may be retained when affixed with a properly completed Bonus Red Drum Tag.

Any fish retained under authority of a Red Drum Tag or a Bonus Red Drum Tag may be retained in addition to the daily bag and possession limit.

And if you hold a digital licence, the tag is not something you physically attach — digital tags must be reported through the Texas Hunt & Fish mobile or online app instead of being affixed. That trips people up in the field.

These limits state their own expiry. They run out on 31 August 2027, and TPWD publishes a new Outdoor Annual each year. Open TPWD's drum page before you fish. That is the authority; this page is not.

Texas vs Florida, side by side

Worth seeing plainly, because the two are covered interchangeably almost everywhere:

Same species. Adjacent states. Three times the bag and a different slot at both ends. Our Florida redfish guide covers that side, including the release-only zone most guides miss.

Black drum, while you are there

You will catch them on the same ground, and the limits are different again: daily bag 5, 14 to 30 inches, and no more than one black drum over 52 inches per person per day — that big one counting inside the daily bag rather than on top of it.

Where to look

Texas has a long chain of bay systems — Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay, San Antonio Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, Baffin Bay, and the Upper and Lower Laguna Madre. The water types that hold fish are consistent across all of them:

• Shallow grass and sand flats on a rising tide, where tailing fish give themselves away
• Marsh drains and cuts on a falling tide, where bait gets flushed out to waiting fish
• Oyster reef on moving water
• Jetties, passes and the surf for the big autumn fish
• Deeper holes when it turns cold

The single most useful habit is fishing moving water. A slack tide on a flat that was alive an hour ago is usually a dead flat.

Autumn, and the fish you have to think about

In autumn the large adults school in the passes and along the beaches to spawn. These are the bull reds, and almost all of them are over the 28-inch maximum — which makes each one a decision: a tag fish, or a release.

Worth being honest about the arithmetic. You get two tags a licence year. Everything else that size goes back, and it goes back after a hard fight in warm water, which is when handling matters most.

Handling, because most of what you touch goes back

Between a three-fish slot bag and every bull red above it, a good day means a lot of releases.

• Circle hooks when fishing bait — they take the corner of the mouth instead of the gut, and on a fishery where most fish are released that is the difference between a release and a mortality.
• Keep big fish in the water where you can. Support them horizontally with two hands if you lift them; never hang a heavy red vertically by the jaw.
• Wet your hands, use a rubberised net, and be quick.
• Revive it properly — hold it facing into moving water until it pulls away under its own power.

The autumn schools are the breeding stock. The slot exists to protect exactly those fish.

Related

• How to catch redfish in Florida — the same fish, different rules
• How to catch speckled trout in Louisiana — a third Gulf agency, a third rulebook
• Red drum — identification, range and diet
• Rigs & setups — what goes on the line, in order

Sources

• Drum Bag & Length Limits — Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — red drum daily bag 3, 20–28 inches; the Red Drum Tag and Bonus Red Drum Tag rules and their in-addition-to status; digital tag reporting; black drum bag 5, 14–30 inches, one over 52 inches; possession limit double the bag; saltwater endorsement requirement; 9 nautical mile state water boundary. Valid 1 Sep 2026 – 31 Aug 2027, read 31 August 2026.
• Red Drum (Redfish) — Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — the Florida slot, bag, regional vessel limits and Indian River Lagoon rule used in the comparison.