Think catch and release isn't important?

[DTro]

Think again

Once again we are reminded that if we want to continue to have a trophy fishery and keep catching big fish, catch and release is the only way that will happen.

Here's some data from a fish that Eddie ec30_06 caught recently:

Eddie measured it at 44". The tagged fish was first caught near Renville County’s Mack Lake/Camp Town County Park. The fish was 40" long and aged at approx 14yrs. This was in 1997

So that means that the fish was 100 river miles downstream from where it was first caught and grew about 4" in 13 years. That also makes it approx 27 years old!

Something to think about next time you catch a big one and maybe want to harvest it for a meal. Like Dark30 has always said, a T-Bone tastes much better.

[blakeb]

wow

[thatoneguy]

Very cool!

[A.W.Wolfram]

Great Info

[Carp-fisher]

Thats awesome and yet another reason for a complete "no kill" reg on flatheads.

[MN BassFisher]

That's a handy piece of info there Dtro, thanks for sharing!

[DTro]

Don't thank me, thank Eddie. Not only for catching the fish, but following up with the DNR and sharing the info.

I'm just a messenger. But I think it's a pretty important message and hope others would spread the word about eye opening info like this.

[MN BassFisher]

Makes me want to catch a tagged fish! Well I should probably catch my first Flat before I wish for things like that.

[Gordie]

Thanks to all for the releaseing of these great fish and the DNR for there involement in the tagging

[merkman]

Something to think about next time you catch a big one and maybe want to harvest it for a meal. Like Dark30 has always said, a T-Bone tastes much better.

+ 1

[ec30_06]

That cat put some miles on. I have caught a few tagged fish, but none that big or old, so it was cool to get that much information back on it.

[ec30_06]

It also makes me wonder how many of these big fish travel to the Mississippi to winter. I remember hearing about a flat that was tagged on the MN river that the commercial fisherman in WI caught on pool 4

[goblueM]

i've seen a few presentations by various midwest DNR agencies, and I know folks in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa have all found some degrees of winter migration to bigger rivers, or the mainstems/deep holes by flatheads

but like most things, it wasn't always consistent, some fish stayed put, others went upstream, and so forth. Fish generally did show fidelity to their preferred overwintering site though

[mrklean]

thats pretty cool, if only more people would do CPR

[abcnerdd]

That is pretty amazing!

[dsm95]

I caught one two seasons ago that actully shrunk (according to my measurments) by 4" and lost 4# since it was originally caught by north redwood and I caught in Mankato city limits eight years later.