Hatchery Raised Fish

[flyman013]

I was just curious as to how many of you catch/have caught hatchery raised fish. Although I am still new to salmon fishing, I have never caught a trout or salmon missing it's adipose fin. I don't know if it is common to catch them or not. Thanks.

[Nailer]

Kinda funny, I never even checked for that. I'll have to look next time.

[Fishwhisperer]

It seams to be more common in trout. Half of of the Lakers we've caught this year have been clipped and three have been tagged.

[GLF]

I have caught a few of them. Some coho, and some trout.

[Rayman96]

Adipose clipping is new on the Ontario side. Used to clip belly fins, which I could never really agree with.

Anyway, caught a tagged walleye once in the Thames River during the spring spawning run. Did catch clipped fish a long time ago but did not keep count. Haven't really bothered to look for adipose clips on the Erie rainbow.

Time to start a log again, that's for sure.

[HitMan]

Almost all Lake Trout are planted since their reproduction level is slim to nonexistent. Most Lake Trout are clipped and have tags in their snouts. Since the Feds do this, and so many are planted, no lures (rewards) are given by the DNR for turning in the heads. However, Chinook and Steelhead are the most commonly clipped. They stopped clipping the Cohos a few years ago, but clipped some out of the Grand River system 2 years ago.

We turn in right around 50 heads each year. The information you get back in the winter is pretty cool to look at and see where they are from, how old they are, when they were planted, what size they were, etc.

When the Lake Huron collapse happened, 57% of the Chinook heads that came back to us were from Lake Huron. Now, most fish caught in Grand Haven come from St. Joe, Manistee, and Charlevoix.

Remember to start looking... each Steelhead, Chinook, Brown, or Coho is worth a free lure from the DNR!!!!!!!

[EdB]

Here a link for more information on tagged fish, another link for the tag recovery form and another for drop off locations. I keep the forms in my cleaning bucket with a tape measure and scale and some small zip locks. Fill out the form, put it in a small ziplock and then put it and the head in a bigger ziplock and freeze it till you can drop it off. The small zip lock keeps the form from getting bloody. Those with adipose clips are the ones with micro tags in their snout. We usually get 10-15 a season. Back when they tagged the steelies on the St Joe river, we would rack up 20+ a year. The DNR sends a letter with a free lure for the salmon and steelies that are tagged. Maybe browns too but I've never caught a tagged brown trout. We have got fish off St Joe that were planted at Oscoda. It's interested to learn where the ones we catch came from.

More info:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_52259_48361-180626--,00.html

Tag Recovery Form:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/coded_wire_tag_form-PR8550_35853_7.pdf

Drop off locations:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/coded-wire-tag-drop-sites-July-2006_165267_7.pdf