Tagging fish- homemade method ???

[N Florida Mike]

I live on a small lake that I try to manage the fishing on. I did a little tagging but then the company I got the tags from nearly doubled the prices. Im on a very limited budget ( almost no funds for it ) so I was wondering if anyone knows of an inexpensive way to tag them without ordering tags from somewhere.

Or at least low cost tags from somewhere.

I am very interested in this. It would be fun and educational for me to tag in my lake. Even if you dont have a tag solution, but have some stories about tagging, it would be welcomed.

 

 

[looking45]

check your local regulations, in some states it's illegal to tag fish without a permit from Fish and Game.

[N Florida Mike]

its a private lake anyway so...

[VolFan]

Check Tractor Supply or your closest farm supply store. There's a myriad of ear tags and clips in plastic and metal for tagging livestock.

[N Florida Mike]

? ... But then I might as well bite the bullet and buy fish tags. ( If Im going to buy livestock tags.) Maybe looking at them will give me an idea of something I could make though...

[WRB]

Do what the fishery management folks do, fin clip to identify fish that have been caught.

Tom

[geo g]

I used to cut a small V cut on one of the dorsal fins, no harm.  Then I would check when I caught a fish.  It just took too much time and I stopped.  Only caught one with my little V again.  

[WRB]

Clip pectoral fins.

Tom

[VolFan]

How much are you trying not to spend? You could make tags out of aluminum cans but you'd need a hand punch to affix them. 

[N Florida Mike]

I liked the tags I bought , but they went up , from something around 28.00 a dozen, up to 40 something I think. 28.00 a dozen seemed high to me to start with.

I want to be able to at least I.D each individual fish somehow ,not just make the same mark on every fish, which wouldnt tell me anything...

When I did it the first time, I only did 24 fish. Only 3 were ever recaught. 

Im wondering if the tags fell off because its been probably 6-7 years since I tagged them. All 3 of the re-caught fish were caught again within the year I tagged them.  1 fishwas released without getting the fishes number to record. The other 2 were both recaught near where they were first caught.

Its very interesting to me. I would love to have info. on fish movement in the lake especially, and growth. Also what it was caught and re-caught on.

[schplurg]

Branding! 

[WRB]

Search "fish tags for bass" and eBay comes up with a tagging gun, 1000 tags and replacement barbs for $15.

Tom

[Glenn]

Why yes, yes we do have several articles about this:

 

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/tagging-bass.html

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/tagging-fish.html

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/radion-tagging-fish.html

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing_lures/fishtagger.html

 

And yes, they have links and phone numbers to several companies that provide tags...possibly some you didn't know about.

[N Florida Mike]

Thanks for the responses.