The Journey of One TIC Rainbow
by Tom Giannaccini
The journey started when we picked up the rainbow triploid eggs December 6, 2018 at the Albert Powell Hatchery in Hagerstown, Maryland (MD). Eggs were picked up for over 100 schools/facilities by multiple TU Chapters. MDTU Trout in the Classroom (TIC) volunteers picked up 150 eggs for each of the 24 schools/facilities in Baltimore City & County, Cecil County & Harford County.
I participate in Trout in the Classroom as both a volunteer & host for eggs. I received 132 eggs. The eggs are placed in a breeder box with the tank kept a constant 52 degrees by a chiller. I took a picture of the eggs, zoomed it on my computer & was able to count my eggs. My eggs started hatching into alevins on the 5rd day.
I distributed some of my fingerlings to several schools that lost their fingerlings. On May 10, 2019 we released some fingerlings over 6” into the pristine Little Gunpowder at Jerusalem Mills, this was 153 days after the egg were put in my tank.
On November 11, 2019 I took a 13” rainbow to Ridge Ruxton School in Baltimore County (Day 340). Ridge Ruxton is a school for disabled students. The students loved seeing the rainbow when they passed through the lobby where the tank was located. The students got to learn about the trout life cycle, how watersheds work, the nitrogen cycle in fresh water, and how to take care of fish in an aquarium. This gives them a lot of joy. Jay, the teacher, sent out flyers frequently with the status of the rainbow. The students named the rainbow “Jane Ponda”.
The plan had been to take the rainbow out of the tank just before the new eggs arrived, tag it then release it. So on 12/7/2019 we took it out of tank & released it at Jerusalem Mills into the pristine Little Gunpowder River. This was 366 days from when the eggs were delivered. The rainbow was now 16”.
I had setup a special Gmail address [email protected] and had it printed on the red tag along with a unique three digit number so any tagged fish could be reported back to me. I contacted our local MD DNR person to confirm that it was ok to tag our TIC trout. Since I started volunteering for TIC in the Fall of 2017, I became curious where the released TIC rainbows went & what happened to them. I started tagging some TIC rainbows in November of 2018. This particular rainbow had Tag 061. This was the 9th TIC rainbow that I had tagged & released. I spoke to the people at Floy Tag with a lot of questions: 1) How to tag the rainbows (behind dorsal fin), 2) What is the smallest size rainbow that I can tag (4” with a small tag), 3) Color of tag (Red & yellow is what I selected), 4)Best way to print info on tag so it could be reported back to me. Floy Tag can print on both sides of the tag with a limit of 18 characters on each side.
On May 31, 2020 Justin was fly fishing the Little Gunpowder and caught a large healthy rainbow with one of my tags on it. Justin emailed me: "Good afternoon. I caught a beautiful rainbow trout today with a tag in it. 061 is the tag #, it is about 18 inches long, 2lbs. 1oz. in weight. I caught it in Little Gunpowder falls about a mile downstream from Jerusalem Mill." In the 6 months of freedom this rainbow grew 2” and traveled a mile down river from where it was released.
I emailed Justin back told him the history of this rainbow and asked some more questions. Justin replied with: “Wow! That fish had quite a story, I feel privileged to have landed that one. To answer your questions, I did keep it and I did take a picture (I will attach the photo). She was rather tasty Tom, one of the best rainbow trout my wife and I have ever had. As for meeting up, I could possibly do that depending on when. Looking forward to hearing from you."
And so ends the journey of Jane Ponda. This made both my day & my TIC Mentor Jim Tingey’s day !!!! Very Cool !!! This was the second tagged rainbow reported back to me.
I participate in Trout in the Classroom as both a volunteer & host for eggs. I received 132 eggs. The eggs are placed in a breeder box with the tank kept a constant 52 degrees by a chiller. I took a picture of the eggs, zoomed it on my computer & was able to count my eggs. My eggs started hatching into alevins on the 5rd day.
I distributed some of my fingerlings to several schools that lost their fingerlings. On May 10, 2019 we released some fingerlings over 6” into the pristine Little Gunpowder at Jerusalem Mills, this was 153 days after the egg were put in my tank.
On November 11, 2019 I took a 13” rainbow to Ridge Ruxton School in Baltimore County (Day 340). Ridge Ruxton is a school for disabled students. The students loved seeing the rainbow when they passed through the lobby where the tank was located. The students got to learn about the trout life cycle, how watersheds work, the nitrogen cycle in fresh water, and how to take care of fish in an aquarium. This gives them a lot of joy. Jay, the teacher, sent out flyers frequently with the status of the rainbow. The students named the rainbow “Jane Ponda”.
The plan had been to take the rainbow out of the tank just before the new eggs arrived, tag it then release it. So on 12/7/2019 we took it out of tank & released it at Jerusalem Mills into the pristine Little Gunpowder River. This was 366 days from when the eggs were delivered. The rainbow was now 16”.
I had setup a special Gmail address [email protected] and had it printed on the red tag along with a unique three digit number so any tagged fish could be reported back to me. I contacted our local MD DNR person to confirm that it was ok to tag our TIC trout. Since I started volunteering for TIC in the Fall of 2017, I became curious where the released TIC rainbows went & what happened to them. I started tagging some TIC rainbows in November of 2018. This particular rainbow had Tag 061. This was the 9th TIC rainbow that I had tagged & released. I spoke to the people at Floy Tag with a lot of questions: 1) How to tag the rainbows (behind dorsal fin), 2) What is the smallest size rainbow that I can tag (4” with a small tag), 3) Color of tag (Red & yellow is what I selected), 4)Best way to print info on tag so it could be reported back to me. Floy Tag can print on both sides of the tag with a limit of 18 characters on each side.
On May 31, 2020 Justin was fly fishing the Little Gunpowder and caught a large healthy rainbow with one of my tags on it. Justin emailed me: "Good afternoon. I caught a beautiful rainbow trout today with a tag in it. 061 is the tag #, it is about 18 inches long, 2lbs. 1oz. in weight. I caught it in Little Gunpowder falls about a mile downstream from Jerusalem Mill." In the 6 months of freedom this rainbow grew 2” and traveled a mile down river from where it was released.
I emailed Justin back told him the history of this rainbow and asked some more questions. Justin replied with: “Wow! That fish had quite a story, I feel privileged to have landed that one. To answer your questions, I did keep it and I did take a picture (I will attach the photo). She was rather tasty Tom, one of the best rainbow trout my wife and I have ever had. As for meeting up, I could possibly do that depending on when. Looking forward to hearing from you."
And so ends the journey of Jane Ponda. This made both my day & my TIC Mentor Jim Tingey’s day !!!! Very Cool !!! This was the second tagged rainbow reported back to me.
