Hi chaps.. I'm hoping that this topic is not going to be very contraversial, but i was wondering whether the tagging of fish in the uk (and for this topic - sea trout) is legal or not..? I have been in the uk for nearly ten years but am originally from South Africa. Tagging of game fish, mainly found in estuaries is very popular in SA and after a period of time as little as two years, it starts becoming quite exciting as recaptures start occuring. The process does not harm the fish at all, and fish have been caught over six years of being tagged and the information it provides is amazing. The process is fairly simple. the tagging kits come with instructions on how to handle fish safely, as well as where to tag the fish and so on. There are also numerous videos on youtube, demonstrating how its done. It becomes truly amazing, catching a tagged fish, and then later logging in the code on the internet and finding out how much it has grown since last caught, the location of where it was last caught and how fast they have put on weight and so on..

I have always been a lover of trout fishing, but recently started fly fishing a couple estuaries near me in sussex for bass, only to discover the exciting world of sea trout fishing. Come the next season, i am getting my first migratory environment license and am going to target them in the upper tidal sections of the two closest rivers to me. On reserching it all i have found that there is a lot of conservation being done, especially on the sussex ouse sea trout.

Do you think that there is place for this to be done..?? It kind of makes me as a fishermen feel that i am able to do something for conservation while at the same time enjoy my passion of catching fish. It also makes the whole conservation of it all, a bit more personal, as everyone (who wants to that is) can get involved, and not just leave it to the envoronment agencies..

Wouldnt mind hearing some of your thoughts on this..

Cheers
Rich

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Hello Rich

Well good on you if only more people were like you it would be great, i am in ireland and i would really like to do this also.

It seems a bit of a waste if you are willing to do it but haven,t got the tools to do it ( e.g tags ) maybe if you had to choice to take say 3 tags and if you use them you could apply for more tags once you give the information back about the 3 you taged..

Should be a choice rather than compulsory i think,but i would imagine quite a lot of anglers would like to do this,i really like this idea,every little bit of help and information can only be good for the sport surely..??

Hope you enjoy your set-trout fishing next year

Get yourself viva parades, blue

David

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Is a tagging program (using radio tags) ongoing on Salmon on River Dee in Scotland, has been for a few years.
Info is as you say, interesting.
Using the radio tags fish are tracked throughout the system during their stay.
more info here.
River Dee Tracking
May be you could use some of the info to develop a static tagging system in your area.
regards
bert

Thanks aenoon

tagging can be adapted to whatever you want their function to be. And maybe a few people high up could give it a more indepth think, but what i was referring to was a system where the tags only contains a code number and a website(finely printed on the actual tag itself) . The fisherman who catches the fish, will record its weight, length and girth. Once they get home, they can log these details on the website. If this fish was ever to be caught again, the person who caught it could then go home and enter the details (the 'code' that is) on the website, and be able to see its previous catch history as well as add any new details such as how much weight it has put on ... and so forth this method would probably require a fair few fish to be tagged before any recaptures occur though.
It is something that would have to be set up properly and professionally and then maybe clubs could encourage their members to get involved.

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I think you need a license to tag wild game fish.

The Ouse Conservation Soc has links with a Dr Clive Fetter who asks for scales from sea trout so he can determine age, length of time at sea, how many times returns to river etc. He may well be interested in tagging.

I am sure you seen this but here it is again

Sussex Ouse Sea Trout Scale reading report

I fish for sea trout on the Ouse and would tag if I knew how and had the tags.

Good stuff bt, would you have to take many scales? suppose a a few would be no harm, do they grow back?

David

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Remember, there are two kinds of fishermen, those that fish for sport and those that catch something.


My new website,still lots of work to do on it..!![URL="http://www.flyandlures.com/"]http://www.flyandlures.com/[/URL]

On the taking scales question, the sea trout lose a lot of scales when they make redds, on a couple of fish early this year I "accidently" caught, they had lost nearly all scales from the top of the head and quite a lot from the tails, so I guess they must grow back or all fish that make redds would die....

The reason I use "accidently" a lot is that I have had a call from a CEFAS officer about posts mentioning that so and so is out of season, ie warning me that posts are read by them. Of course its impossible to catch a certain variety of trout at any particular time. In my case I have farmed rainbows in the same place that sea trout migrate to.

Last year I caught an 8lb brown in the Eden fishing for grayling, 3 weeks after the brown season had ended.....bad boy that I am....but "accidentally" bad.