Fish tagging project on the Big Hole River
A Floy Tag found on a Rainbow Trout in the Big Hole River.
While fishing the Big Hole River this season you may notice that a few fish have a weird looking blue tag sticking out from behind their dorsal fin. No, they don’t have a fly stuck in their back, but they do have an FWP Floy identification tag that was either placed there this spring or last fall. Beginning in the fall of 2009, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks in cooperation with the Big Hole River Foundation and the Big Hole Watershed Committee initiated a tagging study on the Big Hole River. The primary purpose of the study is to quantify rainbow and brown trout movement and growth in the river from Jerry Creek to the confluence with the Beaverhead River.
It is anticipated that the study will last four years and that at least 10,000 fish will be tagged. This past fall nearly 2,000 fish were tagged in the three sections. This may sound like a lot of fish but with a study reach over 60 miles long, the percentage of tagged fish in the river will likely be between 5
and 15 %.
Record the numbers on the tag: FWP M 00808
Upon catching one of these fish DO NOT remove the tag. The tags may be covered in a bit of moss, so gently remove the moss to reveal the ID number. FWP would like to know the number on the tag, size of the fish, where it was caught, date, species, if the fish was kept or released, and any other information you deem necessary to help them locate the fish. The in turn will send you a reply telling you when then shocked the fish, where they tagged it, how big it was, and any other information they have on the trout. Send information to Fish Wildlife and Parks in Butte (1820 Meadowlark Lane, 59701).
Other studies like this have been done on the Yellowstone and the information that has come in has been fascinating. In October of 2004 a 25.2 in, 6.2 lb brown trout was captured and tagged just downstream of the bridge at Big Timber. On 8/10/05 the same fish was caught by an angler and released in the exact location where it was tagged nearly one year earlier.
It measured just over 26 in at that time. A little over one month later on 9/17/05 the same fish was caught and released again approximately 60 miles upstream near the Loch Levan Fishing Access site. So at times we may think we know where a certain fish hangs out, and this study is sure to show just how much trout do travel.
To read more on the subject, read FWP Biologist Jim Olsen’s report on pages 4 and 5 in last fall’s Big Hole River Foundation Newsletter.
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For those of you that waterfowl hunt, caching a tagged fish is a lot like shooting a banded duck or goose. You report the information and they in turn send you information about the fish. Pretty neat deal.