When I saw the length and the weight, the first thing I thought was must have been skinny and if normal weight it could have been a winner. I caught a male last year, not sure exactly but about 25" plus and it had the body of a Pickerel. It was also tagged for the Ice Derby, John Viar felt it never recoverd well from the tagging, which I guess is very common.
Fin clipping also is quite a shock to them as well he says, for such strong/fighting fish they are fragile in many respects I guess ?
If memory serves me correctly according to the fin clip chart it was either a Healthy 3 year old or older not so healthy 6 year old, At least ya won a pole LOL Glad someone else won something!!!!! Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines Dave!!!!
I was only trying to point out that if something as simple as a "fin clip" or tag could stress them out
pretty bad, I'm sure the spawn could be equally as stressfull or worse for some.
Makes a good fish story anyhow, "I could have won the Derby Salmon division, etc"
