I had pretty good luck using a paper punch and putting holes in the anal fins and pectoral fins. I did a "count-the-bass" survey one time where I
punched holes and released all bass. Holes were coded for length by the fin I picked. All punches were recorded. Also all recatches were recorded. At first, recatches were seldom, but by the end of the summer recatches were about 75-80% which gave me a rough estimate, based on the number punched, of the number of bass in my pond of 3.5 acres. The next year the scars were still evident but were hard to identify 2 years later.
