Well, This is a First

[TOXIC]

Out fishing yesterday with my buddy on the Rappahonock River here in Virginia and I catch a tagged bass.  Tag has an id#, a telephone # and the word “reward” on it.  I called the number and left a message but after a little digging, I found it probably is from our local DNR from a few years ago.  I have to laugh because a couple of years ago this same buddy of mine and I was fishing and we saw something odd floating in the water and we netted it out.  Come to find out it was an ankle monitoring device and had a number to call if found.  He ended up getting a $25 prepaid Visa card.  Let’s see if I can beat him! 😂

[looking45]

Years ago Fish & Game tagged a bunch of bass for a survey. One day I found a school of bass that most of them had tags on them. The tags were worth $10-$20. We were tossing the fish. A o without removing the tags until we started catching fis with tags that were $75-$100. Both of us ended up with 5-6 tags. Brought the tags to the Fish & Game office and they thanked us for turning them in and sent us checks. A good day on the lake

[TOXIC]

The info I read did not require the removal of the tag but we will see.  I have measurements and GPS location, the fish was released.  

[Susky River Rat]

They were doing an initiative like this at stonewall Jackson probably about 5 years ago as a study on musky. They even had radio trackers in them and would update them weekly. 

[looking45]

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

The info I read did not require the removal of the tag but we will see.  I have measurements and GPS location, the fish was released.  

The tags said to bring or send them to a Fish&Game office. They just asked the date we caught them. Doesn’t make sense to me they didn’t want more info

[12poundbass]

Reading this reminded me of the time I caught a walleye with a band on it. This was probably 30 years ago. I was up on Big Bay de Noc with my mom and stepdad fishing like we did every summer. We sent in the tag and waited and waited for what seemed like forever! We eventually received the information back from the DNR stating the walleye had been tagged the previous year and it was tagged about 1/2 mile away from where we had caught it. 
 

Six or so years later my buddy and I were goose hunting his grandparents land and bagged a goose with a band. We were so pumped and immediately called the number to get the info. We were anxious to hear where it was banded, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, somewhere in the Deep South? Nope, the dang bird was banded about 5 miles away from where he shot it! Bummer. 😂

[Catt]

Y'all need to catch up 😉

[Pat Brown]

I never caught a tagged bass - that's wicked cool!

[12poundbass]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

Y'all need to catch up 😉

I forgot all about that. You still have that truck?

[Catt]

31 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I forgot all about that. You still have that truck?

 

There's a video of P.D. Vinson handing me the keys to the truck. It was strictly ceremonial, I had the truck sold & the check was in my wallet.

[TOXIC]

A badge of honor in Michigan on lake St Clair is to catch a banded smallmouth.  Some guys have a collection of them like banded geese.  I was lucky enough to catch one and saved the band.  They are banded through the bottom lip.  

[woolleyfooley]

23 hours ago, TOXIC said:

The info I read did not require the removal of the tag but we will see.  I have measurements and GPS location, the fish was released.  

I would think having a non biologist removing the tags would be a bad idea. I’m surprised to hear they do that.

[Darren.]

On 11/2/2024 at 1:12 PM, TOXIC said:

 Come to find out it was an ankle monitoring device and had a number to call if found.

 

At least it was floating ... and not attached to a body part. LOL

[Alex from GA]

I've never caught a tagged fish but I was part of a tagging program in places where shock boats couldn't go.  We tagged, recorded and took fin clips of over 500 bass on the Chattahoochee River, mostly Shoal Bass.  Interesting days. 

[Munkin]

On 11/3/2024 at 6:40 AM, Catt said:

Y'all need to catch up 😉

 

So you won a truck for catching a tagged fish? How did I miss this story?

 

Allen

[MAN]

We do that with redfish down here in Texas.  You get a brand spankin new truck and boat if you catch one. 

[TnRiver46]

My buddy pulled one into my boat last summer. People catch a lot of them on the Holston and you get $100 if you cut it off, we let it go because we didn’t know about the reward program 😂 

[woolleyfooley]

22 hours ago, MAN said:

We do that with redfish down here in Texas.  You get a brand spankin new truck and boat if you catch one. 

What?? 😮