Tagged Fish

Have you caught a tagged fish?

Inland Fisheries Ireland regularly tags eels, bass, sea trout and elasmobranchs. 

Take a photo, measure the fish, weigh or estimate its weight, record the tag number and then let the fish go.

Tell IFI in as much detail as possible where you caught it, including the time and date and fishing method used to catch it.

Send an email with the information to the relevant email below.

Tagging

Join our tagging team to tag elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and bass. Anglers who regularly catch these species can be trained and equipped for tagging by staff at Inland Fisheries Ireland. Our Marine Sportfish Tagging Programme has been running for 50 years and has tagged over 40,000 fish, providing fantastic information on the distribution and movement patterns of 15 different species.

Who do I contact?

Email info@fisheriesireland.ie

For more information, the Marine Sportfish Tagging Programme and Tagging and Telemetry.

Tagged Bass

Have you caught a tagged bass?

Please look out for tagged bass and report any you find. Take a photo, measure the fish, weigh or estimate its weight, record the tag number and let it go. Tell us in as much detail as possible where you caught it, including the time and date and fishing method used to catch it. Send an email with the information to the relevant email below.

Who do I contact?

Email Bass@fisheriesireland.ie

For more information, National Bass Programme and Tagging and Telemetry.

Salmon / Trout Scale Samples

Have you caught an adult salmon or trout?

If you are lucky enough to catch an adult Atlantic salmon, sea trout, brown trout or ferox trout, IFI would love to hear from you

You can help IFI learn a little bit about the fish, its growth rate and its age by taking scale samples from the area shown below in the diagram.

Using a sharp knife, gently but firmly scrape about 5 to 10 scales in a head-to-tail direction. This may be done two or three times in rapid succession on the left side of the fish. Scales can be rubbed off the knife on the inside of a small envelope and sent in to us.

Who do I contact?

Research Division, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin, D24 Y265. 

For more information, visit the National Salmon Scale Project and on Fish Ageing Techniques.

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Have you seen any lamprey spawning activity?

River and brook lampreys spawn in March–April in shallow, moderately-flowing gravelled areas of rivers and streams. If spawning is occurring, you are most likely to see a ‘freshening’ of areas in the gravels, with loosened gravels of a lighter colour than the surrounding river bed.

River lamprey nests, or redds, are identified by oval or circular scrapings in the gravels of up to 40cm in diameter. Brook lamprey nests are smaller, often only a few centimetres wide and long. Lampreys are often present in the nests, even during the day, with numbers varying anything between 2 and 20 individuals.

Brook lamprey and river lamprey are sometimes seen spawning in the same location, but they can be told apart by their size: brook lampreys are about 10–12cm in length, but river lampreys are bigger, measuring about 25–30cm in length.

Sea lampreys are easily distinguished from river and brook lampreys as they are much larger, around 60–90cm in length, and have a mottled brown and black colour. They spawn in May–July, which is later than brook and river lampreys, in the gravels and cobbles of shallow, fast-flowing sections of rivers. They often spawn in areas that are used by spawning salmon and trout.

Sea lamprey nests are large structures, over 1m wide and up to 50cm deep, often visible from the bank. Look for a mound of freshly turned gravels of a lighter colour than the surrounding river bed and a bowl-like depression immediately upstream of it. Nests are often found in clusters just downstream of weirs.

For more information, visit the Red Data Book Species.

If you spot any lamprey spawning activity, please let IFI know:

• the exact location (preferably with GPS  coordinates)
• the date of the sighting
• the number of nests
• the number of lampreys
• the approximate lengths of the lampreys (this helps us identify the species, sea, river or brook lampreys)

If possible, use a mobile phone to take a photo showing the nest and its location in the river.

Who do I contact?

lamprey@fisheriesireland.ie