Red Herrings coffee thread has alot of great information on the history and time lines of Thames river walleye and it's research. I felt it should be enjoyed on its own thread.
I was part of the early tagging studies in 1982. We ran an upstream station to catch....sample and tagg walleye during the spring spawning run. This was a supplement to the long term program ran by the Lake St Clair fisheries assessment unit based out of Jeanette Creek near Chatham. The lower Thames study was many years in length and samples and tagged over 7000 fish a season using a bought out commercial drag seine net. Was quite a thing to see in operation.
We adapted a much smaller net and system on a straight section of river down stream of Delaware. Our 4 man crew unfortunately started late in the season and were able to tagg only 500 Walleye during the upstream migration. Because of the current intensity we were unable to duplicate the down stream migration method.
IT was interesting that our tagg return ratio was higher than the down stream and even with the small sample size it was found that the upstream tagged fish were the longest migraters. One fish in particular travelled from our tagging site and was caught off Southbass Island in Lake Erie less than a week after being tagged. Always found this very eye opening that fish would move that far that fast.
Add to this thread any stories you might have on tagged fish you have caught.
I was part of the early tagging studies in 1982. We ran an upstream station to catch....sample and tagg walleye during the spring spawning run. This was a supplement to the long term program ran by the Lake St Clair fisheries assessment unit based out of Jeanette Creek near Chatham. The lower Thames study was many years in length and samples and tagged over 7000 fish a season using a bought out commercial drag seine net. Was quite a thing to see in operation.
We adapted a much smaller net and system on a straight section of river down stream of Delaware. Our 4 man crew unfortunately started late in the season and were able to tagg only 500 Walleye during the upstream migration. Because of the current intensity we were unable to duplicate the down stream migration method.
IT was interesting that our tagg return ratio was higher than the down stream and even with the small sample size it was found that the upstream tagged fish were the longest migraters. One fish in particular travelled from our tagging site and was caught off Southbass Island in Lake Erie less than a week after being tagged. Always found this very eye opening that fish would move that far that fast.
Add to this thread any stories you might have on tagged fish you have caught.
I found a couple of the tags,(the first 3 photo’s below),that I kept that were in the jaw’s of the walleye’s that I caught on Fanshawe Lake from back in the early 80th’s. I called in the number’s back then from the tag’s to the Ministry of Natural Resouces,and I received a letter about the tagging and the release of both of the walleye’s that I had caught on Fanshawe Lake from different dates. Sorry,but at this moment, I can’t find the letter’s that were send to me from the MNR. The letters were a great source of information,on their tagging & their release & migration,etc. Likely these walleye’s were tagged & released around the Plover Mills area,upstream from Fanshawe Lake & swam downriver,and some of the walleye’s,(that didn’t go over the Fanshawe Dam),especially during the spring floods,called Fanshawe Lake their home. The walleye fishing on the reservoir can still be amazing there at times with some young year class walleye’s being caught regularly,and the walleye future has looked bright now for many,many year’s. 
walleye’s ON!! 
