Ever tagged a fish with a paper hole punch?

[John Boat]

I own a 12 acre pond and I'm wanting to do some pond management to keep it in good shape. I downloaded a Fishing Log to track the number of fish I catch, the weight, length, weather, lure, etc, etc. The fishing log recommends punching a hole in the tail of the caught fish with a paper hole punch, to "tag" the fish and determine how often i'm re-catching the same fish. Has anyone ever heard of using this method? I tried to find some information about this online but wasn't too successful. Before I start punching holes in my fish, I thought I'd throw it out there to see what you think.

[Mattlures]

I have tagged fish before using zip ties with numbers on them. This was a long time ago before everything was on the internet. I would highly recomend tags that are made for fish. You can gain a lot more info then just how often you catch a tagged fish. I am sure you could make the hole in different locations but your limited to how many fish you could actualy track, plus the hole would probably heel. I would love to have my own pond and have all the fish tagged. I did my ziptie tagging in a pond that my friends dad had. Unfortunatley a big storm came through and the dam broke so I was only able to get about 2 years worth of info. The pond was only about 3-4 acres. My biggest suprise was that catching tagged fish was rare. I had about 50 tagged fish and maybe only caught 12 of them.

[Paul Roberts]

I tried it with walleyes in a canal system. But they moved too much -never had a recapture.

I later found that, as Russ?...Matt? mentioned above, that the holes will heal. If you were to use the hole punch idea you could try punching out a single spine on the dorsal. That would not likely heal entirely. But that would only tell you whether it's a recapture, but not which one -which might be fine for your purposes.

[cart7t]

BPS used to sell a fish tagging kit.  Not sure if they still do.

[RobbyZ5001]

Why don't you just clip a fin?

[diver_sniper]

I've never gone as far as intentionally tagging fish, however I do weigh and record most of the fish that I catch with a scale that pokes a tiny hole in the skin on the bottom of their jaw.  I've only caught one fish that I noticed had the hole in the exact spot I always put the hook.  It was interesting because it was on a decent sized lake, and both times the fish was within a few yards of the same spot.  The two catches were about a month apart.  Both times my lure was solid black.  Interestingly though the first time was a on 10 inch power worm c-rigged, the second time was on a 3/8 oz. plain Jane buzz bait.  The fish had gained 2 ounces between the two times being caught.  

So I guess what I'm saying is... I hope you figure out a good method because it's a lot of fun to catch a fish you've previously met  

[Paul Roberts]

Why don't you just clip a fin?

Fins can re-grow too -at least with young fish. You've got to get the very base, without cutting too deep.

Here's another idea. Take a digital photo of the lateral stripe on each bass, so you can compare them later. This is somewhat labor intensive, but would allow you to record as much info as you like for each catch.

This has been used in fisheries research for observing brown trout in the wild, and it's used for whales too.

See my thread: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1251317530

[Sfritr]

Cart is correct.

BPS (at least here in Detroit) carries a tagging system.  I would assume that Gander mountain, Cabelas would also.  If not, you can purchase them at this site:

fishtagger.com

If this is a public lake you may want to check with the local DNR

[John Boat]

Thanks for all the info guys, appreciate it!

[Culln5]

Here's a website that you can purchase the tags from and also enter information to track them.

http://www.fishtagger.com/

[.dsaavedra.]

guys, clipping/punching holes in fins simply won't work.

the fins heal up relatively quickly.

this is a redbreast sunfish i recently got. his soft dorsal fin was damaged in transport.

this is the fish on September 4, the day i caught it:

and this is the fish today, 20 days later:

fin is almost 100% healed.

[Paul Roberts]

Very cool. I had no idea they would re-grow THAT quickly.

[RobbyZ5001]

Me neither.... I thought it took months.. not 20 days.

[diver_sniper]

I didn't think it was that fast either.  It makes sense though I guess.  That's an important part of the fish.  I suppose once the body senses it's damaged it channels all resources into getting it back to normal.

[angler1]

Unless you work for the Department of Fish and Game you should not be putting holes in any fish unless it is a sharp hook hole when your fishing. I love fishing, don't get wrong, but fish can feel pain. I belive that dispite what I heve read. I also belive that fish are smarter than we give them credit for and do have some kind of memory related to "pain". If they didn't, I think we would all be catching 10 + pounders. Just my thoughts.

[Dogooder]

A fish tagging system will work well if you want to track individual fish.  However, the most important part of pond management is not tracking growth of individual fish but the overall population.  If you just have lengths and weights of all fish you catch, you can track how the entire  population increases in size from year to year.  And never forget this...you HAVE to catch and remove fish every year or else you will end up with a bunch of small fish regardless.

[ABLE2DISABLE1]

I have done a lot of volunteer work for MOTE Marine studies and they grow back really quick,Within a 30 days on most fish.Bass tourneys, and Red fish, Tarpon to.Clippings GROW BACK, as well as the HOLE PUNCH will MEND, like a sore on your finger.