Some posts on another thread about releasing natives to spawn or "get caught again" got me thinking:

Anyone out there have evidence or just an idea that they might have caught the same steelhead twice?
I'm sure Its happened to more than me; here's my story:

I was fishing the Cowlitz many years back on the bar across/down from the mouth of Blue Creek. I pithched a looong cast(150'?) right up against the claybank. I hooked a fish, played and landed it a saw that it was a dark buck of about ten pounds. It had two very distinctive lamprey marks (?) on its upper back. I turned him loose and went back to fishing. I threw back to the same clay outcrop and TWO casts later hooked another fish. This one didn't fight much. When I got it close I saw it was a dark buck about 10#. My partners saw me land it, and it had the same two marks near the back. We all agreed it had to be the same fish.

Same fish, same lure, two casts apart, and he swam back to the same resting spot about 150' away; now THAT'S a biter!

I've caught the same w. steelhead twice within about 20 minutes.

I Alaska, I've caught the same chinook, also within 20 minutes.

Totally random...in neither case could I see the fish or predict where they might be.

Caught the same steelhead,7-8lbs nate, in the same run within about twnty minutes.

Got him to the shore the first time, and it broke off right at my feet. Second time, I caught it, I removed two hooks!

:p

My partner caught a steelhead that I had broken off about 20 minutes before. Was easy to identify as I was using a unique wobbling style corkie and the line had busted at the upper end of the swivel, so the whole thing was intact. I gave him hell for catching a "used" fish.

We're about 95% sure that the fish at the top of page was caught twice in two days. The odds of seeing two 43 1/2 inch (girth measurements were 1/8 inch arpart ... but that could certainly vary by error) fish with exactly the same amount of color within a few hundred yards are pretty slim I'd say.

Know of one that we caught two casts in a row for sure ...

I've told the story of the fly that belonged to my buddy (broke off in shallows after long battle) that I pulled out of a 25 lb. or so fish that I caught about an hour later (his pattern was very small, sparse & dark while mine was pretty gaudy for those who might want to know on that fact) ... that's perhaps my fave instance of doing so.

There was also an upper 20's buck that was caught about half-dozen times below a friend's house on the 'Duc ... he ended up spawning in the tail of the hole to the best f our observations

One of these days, I'd like to contact WDFW about doing spme form of a study that would allow us to tag fish to see just how many times some are caught. My tag will read" You caught this fish courtesy of another angler who let it go "

Serious! I've got the catalog and such for getting tags, maybe getting in touch with WDFW will give me something to do while the rivers are blown here for a bit

I caught the same hen on the upper Queets 3 times in one day - real obvious 16 pound pig of a fish with a distinctive seal bite on her tail. I first hooked this fish at the head of a nice run behind a big rock, released her, then fished out the rest of the drift - took about 20 minutes. I was working upriver to meet my buddies, so as I walked by that rock I threw the same rig in there and bam, fish on - same fish. Released her again, fished my way upstream, eventually ran into my buddies and as we walked back down the trail that ran by this particular run I told them about this fish. The trail went right by the rock as I was telling the story, so I pitched my gear behind it and blamo, same fish, same spot - really cool as I called it I have caught quite a few other fish twice but this is the only one I have caught 3 times, but I would say that released fish probably bite many times - why not, wild steelhead spawn and get hungry again on their way back downstream so there is no biological imperative to become zipperlipped like salmon or hatchery steelhead, whose ancestors certainly never spawned twice For this reason alone I would release steelhead even in the mythical rivers where the runs are supposed to be "healthy" - you kind of screw up the fishing if you remove the fish - duh

FS and I went fishing on a nice river this Summer and he proceded to catch this fish twice within about 5 minutes Note the three scratch marks below the dorsal fin, the leaches on the right fin below the dorsal, and the notches in the anal fin.

First time.



Second time.


Fish is soooooooooo stoopid.

My partner and I caught the same hen on the Salmon river last year three times in about 30-40 minutes time. It broke me off at my feet the first time and left the jig in it's snout. The jig was still there the second and thrid time we landed it.

Yeah, fish are completely traumatized by being caught.

Betcha' that wasn't the first or second time that fish was hooked Dogfish - those scratches and notches in the anal fin look like they could have been caused by line. Really would be interesting to conduct a study like Bob suggests - bet we would find out that an individual fish would probably bite as many times a lure was properly presented to it.

The fish in my avitar was caught twice in the same weekend on the upper Queets.

My buddy got the fish on Saturday morning. I landed the fish and removed the hook from the upper part of the fishes mouth. We snapped a couple of quick picture and marvled at this 23# fish as we revived it.

On Sunday, I was fishing a side planner with a plug in a hole 1/2 mile upstream from where this fish was taken. After a hard take down and a 15 minute fight, my buddy tailed the fish for me. I went to remove the plug from the mouth and noticed the wound from the day before. This lead us to inspect the fish further and notice the same markings. After another quick picture this big buck was on his way.

I foul hooked a coho in the snohomish one time and my partner caught it legal like about half an hour latter gash in side and all.

I've used this to teach people what a bite on drift gear feels like just locate a dollie or a cut or a silver and give it half an hour to rest then put the newbe where the fish was and have him cast untell it bites hard enough for him to feel it. I've done this succesfuly 3 times on the pilchuck we even used a hatchery steelhead once (a very dark one)

I caught the same fish three times over two months in the washougal some years back. It was a pretty distinctive looking buck, holding behind this one rock. It was interesting watching him darken over time.

I have caught fish twice too It looks like this is a common ocurence.

Whats that say about fish mortality? must not be that bad when the fish turns around a hammers a rig within twenty mins EH Sparky