TOPIC:

I have said at a couple meetings recently that anglers won't catch tagged/clipped coho in 2026, because the vast majority of the 2025 yearclass isn't being stocked until April 2026 as 1-year old smolts in the 7-8 inch range. 

However, I've seen 3 verified clipped cohos already this spring, and they are probably all from Illinois stocking of 2025 yearclass fish in May of 2025. One of them was one DNR staff caught trolling this week, and we extract the tag and verified it came from Illinois stockings in 2025.

Illinois has really warm hatchery water, and they have to stock their fish much earlier than other states, because they will grow too fast and imprint on the hatchery if they don't. Some of these spring 2025 stockings have apparently shown tremendous growth, and are nearly the size of the 2024 yearclass fish, which is very surprising to me. A good illustration of things we can learn from the mass marking program

All that to say, I think it may be possible that maybe 5% of coho that anglers catch this spring could be clipped - so keep a close eye out! If you get a clipped coho at Portage or Michigan City, once our collection freezers are out in April/May, you can turn it in using the data sheets found in the freezers