OCTOBER 2026
Monthly Newsletter
Aloha Tag It Community,
September had 58 tagged fish and 5 recoveries, our highest month on record. Great going! We also want to welcome all the new taggers to the program and thank you for joining the Tag It program!
Recaptures:
We were fortunate to have an influx of recoveries in the past month with some great stories behind them! If you or someone you know recovers a tagged fish, please make sure to report it to us through our site submission form or via email at pacificfisheries@gmail.com. It provides us with valuable data on the fish’s movement and growth that we can share with you, and we’ll send you a free t-shirt too!
#A12220: Dylan Alfonso-Gonsalves sent in a 25” Omilu near South Point that was originally tagged by Dan Frick on the Kona side of Big Island in November of 2023. The fish was at liberty for 1,048 days and was recovered 30 miles away from the original tagging location. This fish provides incredible data point on movement.
#A14566: Chris Demarke caught this 13” Omilu baitcasting, tagged it, then caught it again a week later in the same spot!
#A15056: Jacob Shinsato recovered this 16” Omilu that was originally tagged by a friend, Vance Shimabukuro, 27 days earlier a little down the coast! To add to the story, the fish had another hook in its mouth when it was recaptured: meaning someone else hooked and lost it during its period of freedom!
#A15140: David Ariyoshi recovered this 13” White Papio, which was tagged by Justin Onishi 4 days earlier in roughly the same area.
Short-term recoveries like these are great examples of good tagging practices. Although they might not seem as awe-inspiring as longer-term or inter-island travel, what they do show us is that fish are not too heavily impacted by being hooked, tagged, and released when handled properly, as they go back to feeding shortly thereafter.
A quick note from long-time program leader, Clayward Tam: Short-term recoveries typically stay within the same area during the “prime months”. When there’s food around for the Papio, there’s no reason for them to travel long distances. Their movement and growth seems to be heavily food-motivated . We see most growth in the summer months when bait is running, and movement centralized around areas with lots of prey items.
Updates to the Site:
Over the past few months, our scoreboard and other aspects of the PIFG website have undergone some technological renovations.
We hope to continually improve, and invite any critiques or suggestions for ways to better it functionally and aesthetically.
Feel free to send an email to pacificfisheries@gmail.com if you have questions or ideas to incorporate, improve, and any questions on how to use it.
Monthly Tagging Tournament:
Congrats to September’s winners! We’ll get your prizes shipped out as soon as we can.
Monthly Raffle: PENN Battle III 5000 Spinning Reel - Chris Demarke
Most Fish Tagged: 10 Tags - Devan Chock (12 in September)
Kaku Raffle: PIFG Tag-It Visor - Darren Ishikawa
Thanks to everyone for getting out and tagging fish! Here’s a look at the tournament for October in terms of categories and prizes. Make sure to get your data in on time to be considered!
Upcoming Prize Categories (October)
Random Raffle* - COAST Lantern (Tip for Raffles: More tagged fish = More chance!)
Most Oio Tagged - 10 Tags
Moi Random Raffle (Tag 1 Moi to be entered) - Lawaiʻa “Moi” T-Shirt
Annual End-of-Year Contest:
As we look towards the end of the year, we’re hoping to provide some excitement and recognition for our top taggers by putting together our collective End of Year Recognition Tournament for 2026. Categories will be formatted similarly to the prizes we give out each month, but comprising the whole year. We hope to grow our tournament style and scale in the years to come so as to acknowledge those who contribute their efforts as our program continues to grow.
We have been reaching out to sponsors and want to thank those who have already committed prizes, we will share them in the upcoming newsletter.
Monthly Catch Gallery
Interested in joining the tagging community or being a sponsor?
Email us at: pacificfisheries@gmail.com
Mahalo for your continued support!
PIFG Tag It Team
