TROPHY TROUT GET TRENDY TAGS.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Outdoors Editor

Like tiny badges of honor, the metal clips stamped with ``CAL-DFG'' are displayed proudly on stained fishing vests and the worn lapels of lucky flannel shirts. But their significance is largely a mystery to anglers, even to the most experienced fishing guides.

The mystery only deepens after the source is vividly determined when a huge rainbow trout is landed bearing such a tag pinned to its gill plate. But what does it mean?

``The word isn't getting out to the angling public exactly what our program is about,'' said Mike Seefeldt, assistant manager of the Eastern Sierra's Mount Whitney and Black Rock state fish hatcheries.

The tags identify rainbows that are reared in the DFG's 3-year-old trophy trout program, and anglers who catch a tagged trout have every reason to beam. Released at weights of 1 to 5 pounds after at least 10 months' growth in larger pens than most hatchery fish swim in, the tagged trout represent less than 2 percent of the total production of any given hatchery. Most trout average a half-pound when they are stocked in angling waters, Seefeldt said.

``People are definitely thrilled when they get a tagged fish because they are so much larger than most of our catchables,'' said Greg Kollenborn, a fish culturist at Hot Creek State Fish Hatchery, east of Mammoth Lakes, where the staff fields weekly calls from anglers curious about the tags. ``I've seen people with tags on their hats. They want to show them off. It's cool, like saying, `I caught the big one.' ''

At the Mount Whitney and Black Rock hatcheries, for example, just 6,700 of an estimated 334,000 fish annually earmarked for planting are set aside and raised as trophy trout, which are larger because they have more room to grow. When ready for release, the trophy trout are rounded up in their pens, individually placed into plastic-foam cradles and tagged, then planted the next week in various waters. The process is repeated throughout the year.

While the hatcheries produce rainbow, brown and golden trout, the trophy program is limited to rainbows. Similar programs in the Eastern Sierra are found at Hot Creek and Fish Springs state hatcheries. A small percentage of large brood stock, the majority of which are planted after two years in the hatchery, are also tagged as a supplement to the trophy trout program.

``The tags are like trophies for the anglers. It's nice to hear from people who catch them,'' said Seefeldt, who recently posted on his office wall a newspaper clipping of a woman holding a 5-pound, 23-inch tagged rainbow. ``Sometimes people bring them here, but mostly we see them at campgrounds or along streams.

``It's a great feeling for everybody, including the hatchery crew, which works very, very hard to put out a very good-looking fish and a healthy fish.''

Tired of private entrepreneurs, such as Tim Alpers and his renowned Alpers trout, getting the lion's share of credit for planting trophy trout, the DFG initiated its program so that anglers could easily identify rainbows raised with revenues derived from the purchase of state fishing licenses.

``Anglers know by the tag this fish was paid for by them,'' Seefeldt said. ``And it's also our way of saying thank you to the angler for their support.''

Since there is no state financing for studies on the tagged trout that are caught, the hatcheries don't want the tags back. Instead, they want anglers to keep the tags as souvenirs. Those who practice catch and release can photograph the tagged fish for a keepsake, as the metal clip shows prominently on the trout's gill plate.

For more details on the Department of Fish and Game's trophy trout program, call the Mount Whitney State Fish Hatchery at [phone].

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PHOTO (Color) no caption (CAL-DFG trophy trout tag)

Phil McCarten/Daily News