Does anyone catch, measure,  and tag the fish you catch? I was been doing this and the bands I am using are not the easiest to put on and stay on. Has anyone used the circular Jaw tags to tag Bass? I tried the plastic tags with the applicator gun and they are expensive and jam all the time.

Why ? 

How about every time you 'tag' a bass, you also tag yourself.

That way you'll be able to know how long they last, how many fish you've maimed

and even how it affects your everyday life.

OK, so I'm not a fan of tagging.

A-Jay

I am probably way out of the loop, but is that even a legal practice?  And why would you do it in the first place?  So you know if you catch the same fish twice?  Seems like a pointless waste of time.  Get that fish back in the water.

It’s is legal in Texas to place an ID tag on the exterior of the fish as long as it doesn’t produce a signal.  That doesn’t mean we should.  Fortunately, it is likely a non issue in our waters as I have never seen or heard of some random angler tagging bass and knowing Texas anglers, I think you would hear about it.  With an angler n of 1, there is nothing of value to learn and a much greater potential for harm.  

 

I’m not one to tell others what to do within the law and I don’t know the laws of your state.  However if you are doing this on public waters, you really should consider the cost/benefit of what you are doing, regardless of the regulations.

I should have given a few more specifics. All fish  being caught and tagged are on a Private lake and all measurements and weights are being sent on a Bi-Annual basis to a contact at the Department of Natural Resources.

 

The  intent of the tagging   is to determine if our lake fish population is stunted and needs more fish to be removed ( not many people fish this lake) or if due to the natural cover being removed by homeowners, the lake does not have sufficient cover/structure.

Believe me that I  value these fish as it cost over $16,000 several years ago to restock the lake due to an imbalance

 

I have tagged and documented over 120 fish in the past year and the results show over 73% of these fish,  weighed between 1.25 pounds and 2.25.

 

The DNR has said that any fish between 125 and 2.50 should be removed and an effort needs to be made to add as much cover as possible - man-made or natural

 

I was just inquiring as to how others  may be managing their fish population with tagging and monitoring.

 

Yup - that helped.

A-Jay

I helped on a Shoal Bass tagging project a few years ago, with kayaks on rivers a shock boat couldn't get on.  The tags that were used were plastic and inserted along side the hard dorsal fin.  What we were using works as there have been lots of tagged fish caught.  We photographed, weighed, measured and fin clipped every fish for DNA analysis.

In the late 70’s BPS sold tagging kits it was popular then.

The tags were numbered with a barbed straight pin to insert into the basses back by the dorsal fin.

You could register the kit number with BPS for anglers register the catch. This program died out in a few years.

I caught a 6 lb class bass at lake Sherwood several times over a 3 year period at the same location. This bass didn’t grow any heavier during that time.

This was a very aggressive bass I am sure someone caught and killed. 
I did catch 2 other bass twice after tagging 25 bass at lake Sherwood, 3 out of 25 without any notices from BPS.

Not worth the effort!

Tom