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Tagged Roach x Bream Hybrid Recaptured After Two years at Liberty
On Sunday 6th April 2003 the Waterford and District Coarse Angling Club held their first competition of the year on the River Barrow at Bahana Wood. Thirty anglers fished the event in bright sunshine, and practically no dry nets were reported. Among the selection of large cyprinids taken during the day was one special fish – a Roach x Bream Hybrid of 4lb 2oz that had been tagged and released in 2001, some 696 days prior to this event. The captor was Mark Holmes who won the competition with a total weight of 21lb 12oz.
This hybrid was one of approximately 60 large fish that were relocated from Lough Sheelin, a designated game fishery, and stocked into the River Barrow. This stocking forms part of a major Waterways Ireland funded fisheries development project on inland waterways. The fish were released on 10th May 2001 at the boat slip in Athy, Co. Kildare, having been disinfected and tagged with individually numbered floy tags. At the time of stocking the Hybrid weighed 4lb 5oz and measured 44cm. When recaptured almost two years later the fish was 3oz lighter and measured 43cm. The slight decrease in weight and length is not surprising as the fish was moved from a very productive lake habitat into a less productive flowing situation. The hybrid was in excellent condition and exhibited no signs of stress or trauma.
What is most interesting about this recapture, apart from the fact that the fish had been at liberty for 696 days, is that it had travelled a distance downstream of roughly 64km (40 miles), traversing some 20 weirs or sets of locks en route. When the fish made this long and tortuous journey is not known, nor is it known whether it passed over the weirs or through the lock gates to negotiate its way to Bahana Wood. We still have a lot to learn about the fish in our rivers and lakes.
To assist in this ongoing process it is imperative that any angler who catches a tagged fish accurately records the tag number (without removing the tag) and reports this information, with the exact location of capture, to
Dr Joe
Caffrey
Central Fisheries Board, Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Telephone: (01
8842600).
Previous: Coarse Fish Tagging Programme 2002
