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Honorable Sam Devall 

County Attorney, Lavaca County 

P. 0. BOX 273 

Hallettsvllle, Texas 

Opinion No. M-10 

Re: Legality of taking 

fish using only the 

Dear Mr. Dsvall: hands to do so. 

You have requested our opinion as to whether Article 

927, Vernon's Penal Code, prohibits the taking of Tish using 

only the hands to do so. 

You refer particularly to the practice of "under-bank" 

fishing for large catfish in the Lavaca and Ravidad Rivers 

and some of their tributary streams and point out that considerable numbers of yellow catfish are taken from under the 

banks of these rivers and streams using onlg the handa for 

this purpose. 

Article 927 provides: 

"Except the ordinary hook and line or trot 

line, or a set or drag net or seine, the meshes 

of which shall be three or more inches square, 

or a minnow seine not more than twenty feet long 

used for catching bait, no person shall place in 

any fresh water river, creek, lake, bayou, pool, 

lagoon or tank, in this State, any net, trap z 

,other device for catching fish, or take or catch 

any fish from said waters with any net, seine, 

device, or hook and line or trot line, other than 

as permitted herein. Whoever violates any provision of this article shall be fined not less 

than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars." 

(Emphasis added:) 

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Honorable Sam Devall, Page 2 (M-10) 

Only if human hands are a 'device" as the term is used in 

the statute is their use in taking fish prohibited. 

The doctrine of ejusdem generis is decisive of the question 

before us. This doctrine, which is a prime rule of statutory 

construction, imports that general words following an enumeration 

of'oarticular or sneciflc thinsrs will be confined to'thinns of 

the-same kind and class as those enumerated. ~53 Tex.Jur.sd 223: 

Statutes, Sec. 155: Farmers' EC Mechanics' Nat. Hank v. Hanks, 104 

Tex. 320, 137 S.W. 1120 (1911); Stanford v. Hutler, 142 Tex. 692, 

181 S.W.2d 269 (1944). Human hands are not a "device" of the 

same kind and class as a net, trap or seine. 

While the Texas appellate courts have not construed Article 

927 In this respect, the Supreme Court of Michigan In In re Yell, 

65 N.W. 97 (1895), in construing a similar Michigan statute, said: 

"Section 2 reads that it shall not be lawful 

for any person or persons to set, place or use any 

pound, trap, stake, gill, or set nets or seines, or 

any device of any kind, for taking fish in any of 

the tributaries of the Saginaw river. It is contended that the title gives no intimation of a purpose to entirely prohibit fishing in the tributaries 

of the Saginaw. We need not consider whether, if 

section 2 were to be construed as an entire prohibition of fishing, It would be within the title of the 

act, as it is our view that it was not intended by 

this section to prohibit fishing with hook 'and line. 

The term 'device' may be broad enough to cover hook 

and line, but when read in connection with the other 

words of the section 1: must be construed to mean a 

device of a like ki.. (Emphasis added.) 

Since the Michigan Supreme Court had little difficulty in 

holding a hook and line not to be a device of like kind with 

pounds, traps, stakes, gills, nets and seines, it seems clear 

that the Texas courts would have even less difficulty in holding 

human hands not to be a device of like kind with those devices 

the use of which Is prohibited by the Texas statute. 

In our opinion, Article 927 does not prohibit the taking 

of fish using only the hands to do so. This opinion is limited 

to the construction of Article 927, as we have not considered 

local and special laws, which govern fishing in specified 

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Honorable Sam Devall, page 3 (M-10) 

counties or areas, a8 none of these relate to Lavaca County. 

SUMMARY 

Article 927, Vernon's Penal Code, 

does not prohibit the taking of 

fish using only the hands to do so. 

ney Genepal of Texas 

NW:ms 

Prepared by Neil Willlams 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Hawthorne Philllws, Chairman 

W. V. Geppert, Co-chairman 

Thomas Mack 

Pat Bailey 

John Reeves 

W. 0. Shultz 

Staff Legal Assistant 

A. J. Carubbl, Jr. 

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