I have been wondering a few things lately. About what percent of the red fish we catch are wild fish? Do stocked fish reproduce as well as wild fish? Do stocked fish get as large as wild fish? I tend to think that stocked fish will not travel as far as the wild fish will. Is that true? Thanks for any input or thoughts.
From what I have read it doesn’t look as if the wild fish as a majority swim that far either, tagged fish have been caught within a mile or so of the original tagged position after 5 years
Bragging may not bring happiness,
but no man having caught a large fish,
goes home through the alley.
-Anonymous
Hi Jimmy,
Our genetic analysis of the 2009 year class of red drum (those now in the slot) found that about 35% of the fish captured in the Charleston Harbor estuary (including Ashley, Wando, and Cooper rivers) are hatchery fish. These hatchery fish grew at the same rate as the wild fish. In order to maintain genetic diversity of the hatchery fish and ensure we’re not using the same parents over and over, we replace about 1/3 of our adult red drum broodstock each year. Recently during our genetic screening, we identified a hatchery fish released in 2006 among the new broodstock captured. Of course we did not use this fish in production, but it gives us an indication that hatchery fish are behaving normally and moving to the adult population at about the same time as wild fish do. While adult red drum move offshore during the winter, Hurricane is correct that tagging studies of red drum have shown them to exhibit strong site fidelity, meaning they stay in the same locations. Juvenile red drum also show site fidelity but remain inshore during the winter and migrate toward the mouth of the Harbor at age 4-5 to join the adult population.
Interestingly, a study we conducted with 30 day old genetically unique red drum families released in Winyah, Murrells Inlet, and Little River found that there is some movement of red drum between these estuaries during their first year. We’ve also seen a low level of movement of hatchery fish between the Ashley and Wando at this age. Without the use of stocked fish and genetic analysis we would never have known this because these fish are much too small to put tags in.
Hope I’ve answered you questions,
Karl Brenkert
Life is better outdoors.
Great information! Thanks for sharing that.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
redfish dont migrate. they generally stay in a 3 mile area stocked or wild.
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the mud minnow.
Worked at Ft. Johnson for DNR way back in the olden days. I was a shellfish guy, not a fin fish guy. So, I’m no expert on reds. But, that was there was a project that noticed the slew that runs between the sea side of Ft. J. and Ft. Sumter and had the idea of spanning the mouth with a seine and let the tide to out. As I understand it, it was just a ‘let’s do it and see what happens’ kinda thing. They were able to go in with dip nets behind the seine and dip up reds, trout, etc., measure, tag, and release. They did that for a few years. Each subsequently year, they caught the same tagged reds from previous years.
Ergo, wild reds are very geographically aware. While they may wander around a good bit, they return to the same small home areas year after year. I don’t know if they continue to be that consistent once they get to breeding age.
17’ Henry O Hornet
26’ Palmer Scott
They do move some especially as juveniles. I seem to recall that DNR has tag returns from both SC and GA in less than a year after tagging. Interestingly these large movements seemed to have been correlated with year classes with better than average recruitment. In addition the adults move offshore especially in the winter but GA found using sonic tags that they often return to the same area the following summer. Finally while there is not evidence of mass coastal migrations there is evidence of enough gene flow to characterize the population in the South Atlantic as one population for management purposes.
Great info! That did not take long. Very helpful Karl, as the Charleston Harbor and it’s estuaries are my primary fishing grounds. I caught a tagged one about a year ago and come to find out it was released right where I caught it. Thanks yall.