Date of smolt migration depends on body-size but not age in wild sea-run brown trout

Wild, one- and two-summers-old sea-trout parr in a small stream, were tagged with PIT-tags in late autumn and recaptured in a smolt trap during the following spring. One-summer-old smolts migrated later than older ones and were smaller at migration. ANCOVA indicated that migration date was negatively related to body length at tagging, but we found no significant effect of age or condition factor at tagging on this relation. The difference in timing between the age-classes was thus an effect of body size rather than age.