clipped ansipose fin?

[jonboat]

How much do they clip on a hatchery fish? do they take the whole fin, or just a portion of it? I'm just curious. The one we got this week had it intact, but I never really looked for it before. Just curious so I can tell wild vs hatchery fish in the future.

[Mortigan]

They clip off the whole adipose fin.

[Captain Carl Bish]

They try to clip the whole fin, some clipped fish have a little bit of the fin still on them.

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

It is done with a high speed assembly line-type machine, and some of the techs / biologists have stated a possible 30% "slip by" rate.

All the super heavyweights I saw last season were clipped, it makes sense because they get a fast start instead of scrounging. That being said, the true naturals have a better chance for "delayed maturity", leaving them out there for another year of growth.

[GAMBLER]

They clip off the whole adipose fin.

I have saw some pretty crappy clip jobs over last season. Some were half clipped or a quarter clipped. Also don't forget, kings can regenerate an adipose fin according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service rep that was at the Sandy Creek Shootout last summer.

[raider44]

I've been stopped by the DEC and they have taken samples from the snouts of kings that have been clipped. They said there is a miniature magnet inserted and can give them information regarding the fishes history. They did state a 25-30% failure rate regarding the clipped fin. We had two that day that were not clipped.

[jonboat]

The one we got Sunday was not clipped. I never really looked for it before, but plan to from now on - just out of curiosity as to if each fish is hatchery born or wild born.