Tagging tournament fish?

I was thinking as I was falling asleep last night, “Why wouldn’t the DNR want to tag tournament caught fish?” It would be interesting to see what the mortality rate really is with these fish. It would also be interesting to see where these fish turn up after the tournament. How far they move from the release site, and the general condition of these fish if and when they are caught again. There are a large number of fish at each tournament caught and released. Each tag could have the tournament, year, and place of release…

Just a thought, Mille Lacs comes to mind for me. Reason being is that some of the fish tagged this spring are already showing up in numbers…

Tuck

Thats another great idea!!!

We have wondered in the past why the DNR doesn’t use some of these larger tourneys as tools to aid them in monitoring the fish, especially on Mille Lacs. Again I get dissapointed and frustrated with the bureaucracy within our different state agencies and there inability to use all the private information resources available to them, FOR FREE!!!

OH thats right, you have to spend money in government, or else they might not budget you as much next time.

I fished Mille lacs all weekend and a also the WWA tourney on sun. And was interested to see the DNR in one of the mcqouid guide boats w/a couple of clients. We talked to them and they said that every fish the clients or whovere was in the boat at the time gets a tag. I caught one on Backer flat that had two tags in it.Talk about carring a load.