Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tagging Fish

So when it comes to tagging fish what is the best process? Not how but how much or how many do you or should you tag. Can you tag all the bass you catch or should you just tag some and monitor those if you catch them again later? Just wondering what everyone else has done? Or is there a best way.

Thanks,

RC check the thread "Fish Taging 101", it is currently on the 24 hrs active thread list. It contains many of the answers to the questions your asking. I will start taging next year, so I dont know much about it or I would answer anything I could.

I did look at that link. And it was a great link mind you. But it really didn't say anything about how many fish to tag or does it matter or should you only tag a few. Greg did email me back and give me a few pointers. In case you want to know. He said you should at least tag a 2 to 3 fish in each weight class for checking stats on growth. But he said you could tag as many as you want to if you feel like it. I just wansn't sure if there was a certain procedure to follow is all.

Thanks,

The best tagging system is a micro tag with scanner! However that is out of the price range of most here, although I think a few of us could afford it if we really wanted to. I saw it available in the AES catalog a couple of years ago but don't think it's there this year unless I missed it.

As far as the spagetti tags etc. I've seen them create some nasty infections and be aware they don't last indefinitely.

I wonder if tagging the fish through the dorsal fin near the bottom would work instead of going into the meat go thrugh the bottom part of the fin. I suppose it wouldn't stay in there very well then hey?

I've got the spagetti tagging system from Greg Grimes, and I haven't seen (nor caught) any fish that I've tagged this year. So, I think it's "so far so good".

esshup,

That's good? You haven't seen or caught any of the fish you tagged and that's good? Why? How long ago did you tag these fish? How big is your pond?

Thanks,

I'm not sure the "no news is good news" is a good thing when it comes to pond fish.

Sorry Scott just joshing you.

Are you in Wyoming yet?

How long does trimming a fin last, seems like it might be easier on a fish and not cost a thing. If it last 3-4 years that might be good enough. If you haven't caught it by then you probably never will, and if you do you could just re-trim it up.

Some grow back in less than a year. Chad is missing the point. Numbered tags are for tracking individual fish. We have cheap tags for id of a cohort. Not sure where all this stress stuff comes from. The fish laid on its side and it takes less than 5 secs for trained person to insert. It does not hurt the fish. They will last for years and sure some come out at times. We have rubbed algse off one 4 years old and still able to read the number. If using for mark and recapture method the more you catch without a tag is good, this means you got more fish.

The fin grows back but is deformed ( curly/wavy ) looking and not always easy to tell.

Not trying to be negative, its just all the tagged fish I see pictures of appear to have an awful looking infection around the tag. I don't know if there is any real data on if fish die from this but seems like a hindrance on their life if it doesn't heal or keeps flaring up.

These were all trimmed at the rear of the dorsal fin at various times last year. Only a couple were visible in the pictures. IIRC most, but not all, of the BG clip jobs were visible up close and personal. I definitely caught some RES that were clipped early last year that weren't really detectable (no pix of those).

Not anymore! I'm in Montana now. I arrived in Wy. Thursday evening @ 8:00 Mountain time, and left there @ 10:00 a.m. today. Sitting in a hotel in Great Falls, Mt. now. It was a something going from 87* yesterday afternoon to 36*, 40 mph wind and snow today.

Got the goat, although not "Vern". We "culled" roughly 150 bucks through a Swarovski STS 20-60 x 80mm HD Spotting Scope before both my cousin and I thought this one was big enough. From 1400 Yds away he sure looked big! We sat on him and his harem for 3 hours until dark and watched him keep two other smaller bucks away. Then the next morning he looked the same size @ 1200, 900 and finally at 610 when the .257 Weatherby barked. There's always next year!

RC51: I am thinking "no news is good news" because I haven't seen any floaters. I have had 2 floaters this year, both BG, but none were tagged. I've only tagged 1 CC, 2 LMB and 1 BG, and with them being in a 1 to 1 3/4 ac pond, the chances of catching them again are slim.

Heckuva shot. What was the projectile recipe?

Chad, I hear your concern, but NEVER have I found a dead fish floating with a tag. I usually do nto see any infection either although I have at times noticed it. It is really the only way to track an individual unless you catch fish and cut diff fins to track them. Thi is nto vialblae on larger eater bodies or with laeks being fish by more than one individual.

We clip our northern bass when stockign in existing lakes and it comes back to bite us in the butt. Just tuesday at a lake near TN they could not tell the northern bass apart from native bass and they were stocked last fall. It was a faint line on the fin and we threw him back while culling the other 12 inch bass. I will try to convince customers this time to use our colored tags instead.

One nice thing about the colored flow tags is that if you see the fish, you chould be able to see the tag as well. One LMB that I relocated from the local lake was way under WR, and I tagged it using Greg's kit. I saw it 2 days later swimming with the other wolves around the edge of the pond. Without the tag, I would have thought it was just one of the pond locals.

I am going to give it a try. I will test a couple on my GSF first!! They are expendable No offense JHAP! What if you tag a fish and later catch them again then decide to get rid of the tag do you just cut it as far down as possbile and that's it?

Thanks,

You sir are walking a fine line between being accepted for membership or being hunted by us. Hmmmmm. I shall monitor your activities.

GSF won't be a good test anyway.

1. They are too tough to hurt.
2. Juvie GSF will probably line up to get their own tags, and start using them as gang colors.

Funny!! I love it.