After what seemed to be an entire week of canceled/changed boating plans, my GFs sister and I decided to slide the pond boat into the creek to see if we could catch anything or to at least just be on the water. After ab 5 minutes i saw one tailing in the grass… “cast over there” I said!!!.. I believe the lead actually hit this fish in the head b/c she put it right on him! at first thought she may have scared him then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ pulling drag and i look and the rods tipped and shes reeling and the fish is rolling!!! After what seemd to be a long fight i pulled him over the side(last minute fishing trip = forgot the net) to hand out about 20 high fives!! still excited!! Then to notice that she had landed one with a Tag!!
What a Thrill!! Thats what fishin is all about!! A Day/Week home for me to be rained on everyday to get one small window to catch a fish and land a Nice One!
Tag has been reported. DJ107614, excited for the report as this feeder creek is directly off the Harbor. Fish was released to be caught again someday.
Great report. Always enjoy seeing another Clemson ring on a hand. Many times I’ve made the mistake of leaving the net behind and had them come off right at the boat, glad this didn’t happen to y’all.
The Fish was only ever recorded April 2012, was 24" long, and aprx 2 years old. The interesting part to me is that it was tagged 15 months ago in the same creek that she caught him in. This particular creek feeds into the Harbor so I would never have guessed the fish was tagged in it as well.
Knowing the Orange Tag means it was tagged by a Staff Biologist, I decided to give them a call. I spoke with John from the SC Marine Game Fish Tagging Program. He and his team were actually the ones who tagged the fish, so it makes this story even more unique!
After chatting for a while, one of the things I learned is that Reds are hombodies and aprx 80% are caught near where they have been tagged before…
Thanks to those who make these research programs possible…
Cool of you to follow up. I have had the good fortune of visiting the Ft. Johnson facility twice and enjoy a seminar on tagging. If ever you get the chance to do either - do it.
AMAZING what SCDNR does with a ridiculously miniscule budget. And the person you spoke with probably has a masters degree, 10 years experience, a $28,000 salary and a beat up Tacoma! Those guys are the best and we should thank them every chance we get for what they help provide for us.
Vin,
Visiting the Ft Johnson facility is now on my list of things to do one day. My parents went to the St Stephen fish lift last year and said it was pretty awesome. If you have the time you should checkout the PDF below that talkes about the fish lift and the migratory patterns of blueback herring, shad, and stripped bass. http://www.dnr.sc.gov/fish/fishlift/img/fishlift.pdf
Nice catch 