Tagged fish recovered after 1171 days.

[Stan Wright]

I sent Annette a tag number and picture of a fish I caught last Thursday. Think you'll find this interesting.
(picture)
http://www.hawaiibassfishing.com/forum/ ... .php?t=189

Aloha,
Stan

Hi Stan!

Got the info on the #0366 for you. This was a hatchery fish which was tagged and released on 11/13/03, most likely released at the basin area. It was around 10" or so in length at that time and may have been close to 3/4 lb. or so. Using the date of your email as an arbitrary recapture date, #0366 has been at liberty for 1171 days (= 3 yrs., 2months + 2 weeks). Based on your reported recapture location, the fish migrated approximately 2.2 miles up the North Fork. According to the growth chart that I have, #0366 should have grown to close to 17 inches weighing approximately 2 lbs. over 3 years at liberty. If the fish was about a little over a pound like the other tagged fish, the information from this fish may be telling us that it may not be getting enough of or the right kind of food for growth or maybe even indicate that the habitat itself may be contributing to its slower growth. However, if it was 2 lbs, then #0366 was getting enough food and is doing fine. Nice to know that the bass were fat and healthy. They may be fattening up and getting ready to spawn since spawning season for the largemouth is from January to March.

Anyway, hope this information is interesting.

Annette

[skunked]

This was very interesting to me. Nice to know that the tagging project is working because research like this is precisely what the program was created for, right? If I were to catch one of these tagged bass (fat chance with my luck with bass), what do I do and who do I call or contact?
I think the bass looked pretty healthy, but not super healthy and fat like a lot of the bass I see caught on the mainland with the big and fat bodies and smallish heads which indicates a fast growth rate. Thanks for the report Stan.
PS: Do you know if they totally gave up on importing the Florida strain largemouths? Does the Gov't still think that they will drive all our birds to extinction? Ridiculous!

[Stan Wright]

The last time I testified at the legislature about the "Florida Bass" , the friends of animals had a blow up of that famous jumping bass and the red winged blackbird sitting on the cat tale reeds. Honest to God they testified that if we brought the Florida Bass to Hawaii, the bass would eat all the endangered birds. (no endangered birds live in Wahiawa. They are in the rainforest up in the mountains on other islands) You Go Figure???????

If you do catch one of the tagged bass, just get the number, the weight, length, and location. We turn in a report at each club meeting. I'm sure you could call it in to DLNR too.

Aloha,
Stan

[bsp]

PS: Do you know if they totally gave up on importing the Florida strain largemouths? Does the Gov't still think that they will drive all our birds to extinction? Ridiculous![/quote]

Living in California I know about Florida strain bass and their eating habits. Only on incredibly rare situations would a bass large enough to eat a bird actually do so. The bass has to be a very good size to do so (at least 7lbs or more) and even then it would require to much effort for the bass to do it on a continuos basis. Besides eating the blackbird incident the only stories I have heard, let alone confirmed, are of bass eating ducklings that are on the surface of the water. I highly doubt that any bass would pose even a miniscule threat to any endangered birds.

[Stan Wright]

As far as I know they gave up on bringing in the Florida Bass.