Tagged Smallie

Was up fishing yesterday and caught a solid 19.75 smallie with a tag. About 4 hours later and a couple hundred yards away I caught another tagged fish. Measured it at 19.75, same tag number!!! I registered it online, what kind of info do they give you? Never caught a tagged fish

They typically give the entire recorded history on the fish. Sometimes the only record is the fish being tagged but sometimes you catch a fish that’s been caught several times. Can be interesting to see it’s growth and where/when it was caught previously.

biggill wrote:

They typically give the entire recorded history on the fish. Sometimes the only record is the fish being tagged but sometimes you catch a fish that’s been caught several times. Can be interesting to see it’s growth and where/when it was caught previously.

X2 I was an intern for the DNR in 2005 tagging walleyes. I bet an almost 20 inch smallmouth is a decade old.

I’ll post an update when I hear back from DNR, always been curious how old those fish actually are

Craig Sery wrote:

I’ll post an update when I hear back from DNR, always been curious how old those fish actually are

A Biologist there at the Bassmaster Elite event in 2015 told me in person that a 20 inch/5 pound bass here in MN is approximately 10 years old.

And I thought bass were hard to catch…

Not this time of year if you have training wheels 😂

Rainy Lake several years ago. One of the youngsters, age 18, caught a 20″ smallie. The resort owner said at the bass tourney that year, the Ministry was taking scale samples to age the fish. That size fish was ~20 years old. The fisherman caught a smallie older than he was.

In Minnesota and all the rest of the Northern part of the US, Growth Rates are much slower than they are in the southern part of the country. I read once that it takes a Bass about twice as long in Minnesota to reach 20″ than it does a bass in Florida or Texas.

Craig Sery wrote:

I’ll post an update when I hear back from DNR, always been curious how old those fish actually are

Please do. That information would be interesting to see. I hope this fish has a history of being caught several times. I have a buddy who caught a tagged SM on Mille Lacs once. When he received the Info. His catch was the first time a catch had been reported. The only Info. I remember was that it was caught a fair distance from where it was originally Tagged.

I’ve caught a couple walleyes that were tagged on ML. If I remember right, they let you know where it was released, how big it was then, what age it is, etc.

I caught a tagged striper out in Maryland once, they sent the same info but it came with the worst trucker hat with a striper on the front I’ve ever seen.

I caught a tagged smallie a few years back, when I got the report it was tagged a few years prior, and had a catch the year prior. Where it was tagged and caught were all within a mile of Rainbow Island.

You caught the same fish twice in a 4-hr span? That is pretty cool. Did you report the tag twice?

fishthumper wrote:

In Minnesota and all the rest of the Northern part of the US, Growth Rates are much slower than they are in the southern part of the country. I read once that it takes a Bass about twice as long in Minnesota to reach 20″ than it does a bass in Florida or Texas.

Every cold blooded species has a limited metabolism.

For sake of simplicity let’s call it 100.

Body temperature is a direct relationship to metabolism consumption.

In the warmer regions let’s consider a fish to consume 10 pts/yr vs a colder climate of 3 pts/yr.

100/10= 10yr life
100/3= 33yr life

This explains age and growth differences across regions.

But, nature is ever complicated.

Take one fish species in one climate region. Take walleye, Minnesota as an example.

For purpose of similar climate. Minnetonka vs pool 4.

Walleye grow older in Minnetonka than in pool 4.

Growth in Tonka is similar to fish in northern and Southern Minnesota. Yet, why the drastic shorter lifespan in pool 4.
Gizzard and threadfin shad and an abundance at that. I believe due to the availability of such a nutritional meal, walleye in pool 4 consume their metabolism points faster given the same body temperature.

I digress.

Congrats on catching the same fish! I’ve done this a few times with some big sturgeon. Some tagged, others with body characteristics making them uniquely identifiable.

Ralph, I only registered it once, but in the comment section I wrote that I caught it again a few hours later

Neat post and topic. So these tags were for sure DNR tags? I know of some guys who tag fish with their own tags. Also, if I may ask, what body of water were you fishing? If in the Mississippi River, what is the water temp?

We have caught some huge Smallies in lakes in the U.P.. All released alive. Some have been estimated to be over 20 years old. Super cool. Neat challenge, at one place in particular, no live bait allowed–ok by me, barbless hooks only, and no scented baits-no power baits-no gulp baits-etc.. I have a friend that is pretty adept to catching these fish out of a float tube on fly tackle. That is art.

robby wrote:

Also, if I may ask, what body of water were you fishing?

I thought about that myself, but then realized he posted it in the Mille Lacs section so that’s where I assumed he caught it.

Correct, I was fishing ML. Bite has been really good and will only get better. We also brought home our two slot walleye and I caught a bonus 38” pike, a new PB

I finally heard back from DNR today, the fish was tagged in 2017, and had been caught and reported 7 other times, all in the same general area! She must’ve had plenty of food

Craig Sery wrote:

I finally heard back from DNR today, the fish was tagged in 2017, and had been caught and reported 7 other times, all in the same general area! She must’ve had plenty of food

How big when first tagged?

19.5, what was weird was some of the measurements were as high as 21.5…makes me wonder if some of the previous ones were measured with a ruler over the whole fish, not on a board

Well, I’m starting to shrink as I get older.

In 2020 it was caught twice within 2 day, and shrank 2”…

I caught 2 tagged Smallies on the Canadian side of Rainy years back. What was the most interesting to me was one was tagged/release 18KM (12 miles) from where I caught it. The other 11KM.

What was its length when originally tagged in 2017?

19.5 ranger, was caught again electro fishing 3 weeks later and was 18.9…info seems all over the place

kinda sounds like the bear tooth registration process. had a taxidermists take 2 teeth from my bear… another hunter forgot to take a tooth from his animal. when the results came back, i had talked to the taxidermist……there was a 3 year difference in age!!!!!