Diamond Jim Question

[5th Tuition]

I'm looking for your opinion. I don't know the answer to this, I'm just throwing out some speculation.

I just read the Md Fishing Challenge headline off Tidalfish. I do a fare amount of fishing off of either a charter boat (mate) or private boats. In all the years I have fished, I have only seen a couple tagged fish caught. All of these fish have been "research" fish that were tagged to follow migration patterns and growth patterns. None have been involved with the "Diamond Jim" program.

It appears that 200 fish were tagged for the Diamond Jim effort (199 imposters and 1 Diamond Jim). Only 11 of the fish were re-caught. This represents 5.5% of the fish released.

Here's my question. Is 5.5% a suficient return? Where are the other 94.5% of the tagged fish? If this is a program designed to entice anglers to Maryland, shouldn't we have a higher chance of catching at least an "imposter".

I would think Maryland would be looking for something about 20% imposters caught in order to make the program viable.

Each year they advertise the Diamond Jim program, I could care less because the program seems so impossible to win. When was the last Diamond Jim caught?

I like the fishing challenge, where anyone who catches a citation fish is entered. It encourages people (especially first timers) to register their catch at a bait store and receive a citation.

I know the chances of catching a Diamond Jim Imposter is better odds than the lottery, but actually catching THE Diamond Jim may be less.

Do we need to tag more fish to keep the Diamond Jim program viable?
5th (Marty)