ABSTRACTExperiments carried out in hatchery ponds indicated that the survival and tag retention of tagged fish was significantly correlated to their length at tagging. Tag retention in small fish was found to be so low that tagging studies on these in the wild cannot be used to assess angler returns. It was also found that there were significant differences in tagging efficiency between different operators.Experiments were also carried out with tagged trout of four different ages, which were released into an angling lake. The best returns were obtained from spring‐stocked 20‐year old fish, of which 44.8% were recaptured. This was almost three times the reported recaptures of trout of a similar size which had been stocked as autumn 1+ All the recaptures were corrected for mortality and tag loss from the control results, and compared to the findings of previous studies. The results were also discussed in terms of the value of stocking different age classes of trout in relation to angling pressure and angling meth