Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers wrote:



I'd like to know what the odds are on catching the same fish twice, and
better yet, three times! Pictures to be posted on ABPF.

I have very little repeat catch data with SMB, but lots of it with LMB.
Two of the most memorable occurrences came when I was part of a tagging
study. One of the 1st fish I tagged came off a specific tree in a cove
on Lillinonah in June. By the end of the summer, I'd named that fish
Ralph, as I'd caught it 5 more times! 5 of the 6 captures came on the
same lure (9" violet fliptail worm) off the same tree. 3 of those times,
off the same exact spot on the tree, where the largest branch closest to
the bank broke away from the trunk. I caught the fish again in mid-fall,
on a smoke grub, about 75 yards away from the tree, out toward the main
lake, and one final time on a Rebel Humpback crankbait on the point at
the mouth of the cove the following spring. Some time later, the tag was
returned to the biologist in charge of the program, so apparently
someone else caught it at least once.

During the same project, I caught one 13" fish 3 times in the same day
at East Twin Lake.

Two springs ago, I caught a big fish from deep water in April, using a
smoke grub. 4th of July, I caught the same fish (more than a pound
lighter though!) from deep water on a smoke reaper on a drop shot rig.
It was about 75 feet from where I'd caught it 2-1/2 months earlier.
Didn't realize it was the same fish till I was resampling the photo
later. It had a split anal fin, and a unique blemish or disfigurement in
the scale pattern on one flank, and I just happened to hold it in pretty
much the same position for the photo.

http://www.richz.com/fishing/images/samefish.jpg