Each redfish brought to the weigh-ins at the Yamaha Bassmaster Redfish Cup Championship presented by Skeeter gets two examinations. One serves a short-term need, the other a longterm picture.
The first comes at the bump tank, where Bassmaster tournament staffer Mike Bertus confirms the fish fits within the 20- to 28-inch slot limit. After the fish are weighed, they head to the release boat where they get to meet Emily Gaskins.
A lab tech for the Harte Research Institute’s Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation, Gaskins has been tagging some of the tournament’s fish for an ongoing research project aimed at providing redfish life cycle data that helps inform the folks that manage Texas fisheries.
Some of the tournament fish will have a dart tag attached near their dorsal fin. Tags include contact information, so when the fish is recaptured, the angler can report relevant catch details.
“I’m trying to grab the longest fish from each of the three days just to match our data better,” Gaskins said. “I’m tagging a total of 30 fish from this tournament. If I decide to tag a fish, I’ll weigh it, (place) it in the release boat and record the tag number, the length, weight and release location.”
The Harte Research Institute, which studies a variety of saltwater fish species, harnesses the readily available samples tournaments provide. And, because many tournaments occur annually, year-to-year data often reveals important species trends.
For more information on this sportfish tagging initiative, visit – https://www.sportfishcenter.org
