Help

[TIER 0]

So i caught a tagged grayling ( sorry, no picture.) and I had no clue what to do with is, so i released it. I feel like i was supposed to do something with it. What do i do with a tagged fish?

[vicente 0]

Probably write down the tag number and location to give to fish and game and release the fish.

[Dave G. 0]

Depends what the tag says. It could be as mentioned above. Or it could be a retailers tag, least around here they used to tag a few fish. If you caught one, we clipped the tag off and went to the retailer on the tag. Two years in a row I caught tagged trout, each was worth $35 redemption at that store. I still use the vest I got with the tag one year and the tackle box I got the following year I turned into a tying case is still my main travel box and beyond. The fish were released. But natural resource tags or Fish and Game tags you leave on the fish. And these days they also tag with radio frequency tags. A university in Maine was doing a study, they radio tagged a 5lb brook trout up there and discovered that fish went in and out of the Moose River 5 times one summer, slipping into deep water in the lake when out of the river.

Whats funny is they also sent divers into the pool below the dam and found summer fish there were all small most of the summer long. They came back into the river and some larger fish camped out in that dam pool starting the second week of Sept or so.

[cphubert 0]

Looks like they radio tagged to track their travel to spawning areas, unsure if the river system you fished is part of that or if it still occurs. Additionally they tagged juvenile for length weight data until at least 2018 (Artic Long Term Ecological Research). You could contact Alaska Fish & Game for more information.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Where I am, south Florida, we're exposed to tagged fish and many volunteer to work with tagging programs... I've participated in tagging bonefish as well as juvenile blacktip sharks (got paid for that one with Mote Marine Labs over several years taking scientists on board to specifically tag the sharks all day long each trip..).  At any rate, we were told that it took a great number of tags on fish to generate a very few returns so each tag is worth pursuing.  The ones I'm familiar with are plastic spaghetti types with the phone number and issuing agency and a tracking number embedded into it.  What we're asked to do is report each individual recovery by calling the number given as well as providing length, girth, and weight if possible as well as where the tag was recovered... In exchange the angler is provided info on where and when the tag was implanted etc. It all goes into the data sets that our fisheries biologists are trying to come up with.  

I was never involved to date in any of the more sophisticated tagging efforts where archival tags with GPS trackers are implanted - then automatically detach after a given time period (30 days is one I'm familiar with), float to the surface and generate a radio beacon so that they can be recovered... Those fancier, much much more expensive tags record where the fish goes, the depths it frequents as well as water temperature, etc.  It was from those tags that scientists have determined that migrating tarpon for instance follow 79 degree water temperatures without exception (who knew?)...

[xterrabill 0]

Great info on getting the size/weight before releasing, I called one in many years ago. (steelhead, lake Michigan)

[Mark Knapp 0]

Yes, normally we write down the number, record the size and weight of the fish, the time and the location of the fish, send that to Fish and Game, the color of the tag also gives them some information. You have a ADF&G office right in your own town so you can just walk in and give them the info.

A really neat thing to do is take a picture of the fish with a tape measure stretched out with it (if you can) and text that to them. If you have the location in your phone (or camera) set to "ON", it will give them all the information they need in one picture, the species, the time and date, the tag number, the tag color, the size and maybe the spawning phase of the fish as well as it's general condition.

That's the way many of us are helping our F&G departments fill in the known ranges on many species of wildlife, whether it's tagged or not.

[JSzymczyk 0]

When I lived in Tok,  one of the guys I knew caught a tagged grayling in the Little Tok river.   He gave the info to the ADFG but I don't remember that he ever knew anything else about it.   I didn't get to fish (or hunt) nearly enough but I do have great memories and feel thankful that I was able to catch Arctic Grayling.   Nothing huge, but I did get a male in beautiful colors that was 18".   Spectacular fish.  Someday I'd like to get a replica mount.

 

[Mark Knapp 0]

On 8/31/2020 at 3:26 PM, JSzymczyk said:

When I lived in Tok,  one of the guys I knew caught a tagged grayling in the Little Tok river.   He gave the info to the ADFG but I don't remember that he ever knew anything else about it.   I didn't get to fish (or hunt) nearly enough but I do have great memories and feel thankful that I was able to catch Arctic Grayling.   Nothing huge, but I did get a male in beautiful colors that was 18".   Spectacular fish.  Someday I'd like to get a replica mount.

 

That's a pretty good one. I use a guy in Florida that does replicas. He does pretty good and charges ten bucks an inch. I bet he has an 18 inch grayling form. PM me if you want his info.

Come on back any time, we got lots of room.

[The Mad Duck 0]

We caught a tagged Blue Marlin in the Cayman Islands years ago. The funny thing was, It had been tagged off of NC, which is where I live