Hatch brats get tagged at some frequency. Maybe 5%? Tagged fish are regularly caught on the Trinity, etc. But these are not radio tags. They are just basic tags applied at the hatchery with no tracking capability to say "this fish was tagged at this hatchery by this staff member on this date".
The nice thing is that a good chunk of those tags have a cash reward attached to them, $10-100 range. That said it is interesting to see how fast they move. I caught a tagged fish between DC and Lewiston on the Trinity that was tagged at Willow Creek less than a week before I caught it.
OK, you got me. I was using a 3wt Euro rod (Shadow X) with light tippet, so the fight was extra fun. I usually try to bring them in fast even with light tippet to save the fish's energy, but I was pinned at the edge of a gravel ledge with fast water coming over the top. One step downstream and I would be swimming. One step upstream and the water would be too fast to land him. So I had to wait until he was tired, then slide him on the surface into my net. It gives me great satisfaction to replay the whole scene.
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That's crazy. Been fishing a long, long, time for just about every species of game fish, and have never been spooled, though I've had masheer get uncomfortably close to doing so. I've purposefully broken off snagged chinook so that I wouldn't get spooled. Getting spooled 4-5 times by the same fish on the Yuba, no less, must have been be a memorable event.
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