Tagging Striped Bass

live bait

Well-Known Angler
For a few years I was tagging striped bass for the American Littoral Society, and then for a couple reasons stopped. Does anyone know of another group that tags bass.
John
 
Never got involved with tagging for other then Littoral .

If you happen to be interested in taking scale samples for DEC. Reach out to NYSDEC Striped Bass Cooperative Anglers Program.
 
From what I recall there was Littoral, Hudson River Foundation, DMF in Mass, and Maryland DNR. I did quite a bit of tagging in the early 80's thru the littoral society. I have a bunch of certificates for both fish I tagged and and tagged fish i caught. I haven't seen a tagged fish in quite a few years. This year so far we have captured two fish with tags. The first was a littoral society fish tagged in the spring in Raritan Bay at 26 pounds. It was 29 lbs 2 years later when we caught it. The second was tagged in Maryland, Chesapeake bay. Still waiting on the paperwork for that one.
The tag site was definitely showing signs of irritation from the tag .......

20190912_121354.webp
 
Berkley Striper Club (Berkeley Striper Club) in NJ has a tagging program. Caught one of their tagged fish this year. It was tagged in Barneget Bay. My son caught an HRF fish this year, and I had caught one last year. I also caught an American Littoral Tagged fish in May this year, one that was tagged in NH in April; sucker didn't get very far.

The funny thing are the HRF fish who one "self-proclaimed" stripe bass expert claimed he had publications showing that Hudson River Fish don't travel much more than 50 miles from NY and that was a very rare fish. When presented with the HRF return chart, showing fish further up the Maine coast than where I live there was silence. Don't know how he'd react when he found out I've caught a second "once in a lifetime fish" in my backyard.
 
my opinion is The migratory patterns are well established, shouldn’t be any further need for tagging ... btw, anyone know the mortality rate from the tags, obviously the infection is visible... cellfish...
 
my opinion is The migratory patterns are well established, shouldn’t be any further need for tagging ... btw, anyone know the mortality rate from the tags, obviously the infection is visible... cellfish...

It looked like the stuff growing on the tag itself was causing the irritation on the fish .......
 
Ya know Capt13, we are friends and we went through this before, but I’m not in agreement with sticking a permanent whole for an outdated study.. my one and only encounter with the yellow loop tag many years ago was horrifying... not possible that the 24” bass was gonna live long...

Let scientists research this stuff with microchips or some other safer process... still wanna know the mortality rate from tagging bass this way...cellfish... aka C22...
 
It looked like the stuff growing on the tag itself was causing the irritation on the fish .......

Yes, the tags are full of seaweed. I think many folks don't realize they have a tagged fish, because they think they have a fish with seaweed growing on it. My son's comment was, "Dad, there's a stick in this fish!"

my opinion is The migratory patterns are well established, shouldn’t be any further need for tagging ... btw, anyone know the mortality rate from the tags, obviously the infection is visible... cellfish...

In a place where I live Cell, we get fish from both the Hudson and Chesapeake, along with some native spawners so it's good to figure out what the ratios are.
 
Yes, the tags are full of seaweed. I think many folks don't realize they have a tagged fish, because they think they have a fish with seaweed growing on it. My son's comment was, "Dad, there's a stick in this fish!"



In a place where I live Cell, we get fish from both the Hudson and Chesapeake, along with some native spawners so it's good to figure out what the ratios are.

Seaweed.??? , try black mussels too... Migratory pattens are well established, Maine to the Virginia/Carolinas... predatory fish, blues, sharks will pick off any sign of weakness... cellie...
 
Seaweed.??? , try black mussels too... Migratory pattens are well established, Maine to the Virginia/Carolinas... predatory fish, blues, sharks will pick off any sign of weakness... cellie...

Here's another fact demonstrating the importance of tagging studies. About 7 years ago the Nobel Laureates at NOAA decried that ALL cod released by Recs died and they built that assumption into new regs. At a public hearing Maine Headboat Captain Tim Tower stands up with a pile of papers saying, "Here's documentation on over 200 returned tags from my tagging studies over the past 10 years. How can that be if all the cod I release die????"

Well there was a lot of embarrassed red faced Fishcrats at the head table and based on those data they backed off the release mortality assumption to 33%.

Tagging is important.
 
Here's another fact demonstrating the importance of tagging studies. About 7 years ago the Nobel Laureates at NOAA decried that ALL cod released by Recs died and they built that assumption into new regs. At a public hearing Maine Headboat Captain Tim Tower stands up with a pile of papers saying, "Here's documentation on over 200 returned tags from my tagging studies over the past 10 years. How can that be if all the cod I release die????"

Well there was a lot of embarrassed red faced Fishcrats at the head table and based on those data they backed off the release mortality assumption to 33%.

Tagging is important.

Yeah, Yeah, tell ya what R7, if I snagged capt13 bass there, table fare wouldn’t come to mind at all,.. it would be cut the tag, a little antiseptic and over the side he goes with a Hail Mary prayer... cellfish...
 
I'm with Celli here. We know their patterns and it's an antiquated system. I wonder what that mortality rate is of the 15000 fish a year that are tagged? There's a lot of stress put on a tagged bass and we've all seen the wounds they leave. This started in the 70s if we don't know patterns by now we never will.

The American Littoral Society claims to have tagged over 650,000 fish. If it's a10% mortality which it could be much higher, they've killed over 65,000 fish!

Here's the American Littoral Society IRS filling and there sure is a decent amount of money involved.
 
I used to catch fish tagged by the Littoral Society. I assumed it was good, solid science for a good purpose, so I inquired, got my information about the program, but never signed up for tagging. Tagging isn't necessary anymore. Last year I collected DNA samples from bass here on LI for a research program at the University of New Hampshire. It wasn't easy to pluck a scale, deposit it in a test tube, seal it and record the pertinent facts from a kayak, but I probably gathered 20 samples over one season. No need for invasive measures.
 
I wrote to the governors of NY & NJ many years ago bout this littoral society and its very flawed “yellow loop tag” behind the dorsal fin, Their response from the commissioners of DEC both states said thanks for sharing the info... unfortunately the ALS to date is allowed to distribute this outdated program of over 25 years;, seems to be like a kiddie thing.. question my belief with peeps in high level positions... cellfish aka C22...
 
My buddy was part of some striper survey last year or the year before. We are talking about schoolies. They want you to weigh them, measure length and even remove a scale or two. I am just positive all that handling was good for the fish. (yes, sarcasm.)
 
I wrote to the governors of NY & NJ many years ago bout this littoral society and its very flawed “yellow loop tag” behind the dorsal fin, Their response from the commissioners of DEC both states said thanks for sharing the info... unfortunately the ALS to date is allowed to distribute this outdated program of over 25 years;, seems to be like a kiddie thing.. question my belief with peeps in high level positions... cellfish aka C22...
You have a choice now on which type of tags, your not restricted to the tying type. That was changed a couple years ago. I believe that's what your referring to.
I give ALS a lot of credit. There slowly turning JBay back from being a cesspool.
 
I'm with Celli here. We know their patterns and it's an antiquated system. I wonder what that mortality rate is of the 15000 fish a year that are tagged? There's a lot of stress put on a tagged bass and we've all seen the wounds they leave. This started in the 70s if we don't know patterns by now we never will.

The American Littoral Society claims to have tagged over 650,000 fish. If it's a10% mortality which it could be much higher, they've killed over 65,000 fish!

Here's the American Littoral Society IRS filling and there sure is a decent amount of money involved.

Hey George, forget the financial stuff, it would be good to know the research part of the tagging program... is ALS transparent with the research and distribution numbers.?. doubt it.!! ... cellie...
 

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