Bass relocating after tournaments

[Forestlaker]

Does anyone have any information on how bass relocate after a tournament? Example:A large tournament on Gull will have 50-100 boats each weighing in on average 5-8 bass. My impression is they are all released back to the lake but rarely to where they were caught. A lot of them near the weighin. A lot of those fish were probably caught on the small northern lakes like Roy or Nisswa but not returned there. With as many tournament as some of the bigger chain of lakes have each year what impact does that have on the bass population throughout the chain? Do the released fish eventually find thier way back to the areas they were caught or do they just use the best habitat near where they were released. Whitefish, Le Homme Dieu and Minnetonka are other examples.

[Guest]

From the studies that have been done, most bass do in fact return to their original area, but there are factors which will slow and speed up the process. If the area where the fish are released has lots of bait and few resident fish, those released fish may stay quite a while. No baitfish or a stong resident population in the area and those bass will all be gone in a week.

[Guest]

I was trying to dig up an article I read recently on this where they put together a good study on this. They put transmitters on the released fish and tracked them after release. I couldn't locate the article, but if I do I'll post it for you.

In short, they do return to their original home. Normally they follow the shoreline around until they reach familiar waters. Those that need to recover may stay in the release area to recover and some obviously never do recover from release. The article did say that some head out across the lakes (apparently those that know where they are going), but the majority just follow the shoreline in one direction until they eventually reach familiar waters.

[Forestlaker]

Thanks for the information. If a tournament angler gets a number of nice fish off one spot it would seem to his advantage to return those fish to the same particular spot for future tournaments.

[Guest]

Many anglers I know do in fact return their fish to their spots as long as it is allowed by the tournament director.

Mike

[Guest]

Many tournaments won't allow you to return fish to their location. I think that it could present some issues as far as everyone knowing where the fish was caught. Surely the public would watch where you released the fish - thus giving up your spot. If you don't give up the spot, odds are different fish will move into that structure. I've always thought they could divide the lake into divisions and put fish back in the general area with release boats. The problem becomes when you have a basket of 5-8 fish, do you know which fish came from where? Paticularly after culling fish it becomes difficult to remember release points. Something to think about for the future of bass fishing tournaments though. I would prefer to see release closer to the time the fish are caught. Either release checkpoints or boats that weigh your fish out in the water... Part of the reason I believe something like this isn't done is because of the weigh-in "show". Tournament officials want to draw a crowd and have the fish at the weigh-in. I would think they could tape some fish being caught and weighed on camera and play a big screen show back to the crowd at weigh-in.

[This message has been edited by fishnAddict (edited 06-24-2003).]

[Guest]

This is the article I was referring to:

Almost all healthy bass moved away from a familiar area to wander in search of their home areas.

This can take their entire life if they don't eventually blunder to an place where some clue (visual, smell, current, whatever) shows them which way to go. They are not psychic!

About 50% make it home in most studies. These returns are within days for nearby captures but may take years over long distances. Given two direction as options, this suggest about half make the right choice in which way to start going. Bass have migrated over 20 miles in tagging studies, but this doesn't mean they knew where they were going. Unless a water is forked several times and the distances so great that the bass don't live long enough or the migrant finds a river that goes the wrong way, just following a shoreline will eventually get 50% back home.

From observation of caught and released fish, they do one of two things immediately after release. If able physically, the move away several hundred yard, then stop to rest and recover for as long as 2-3 days before starting to wander (or if they know the way home because home is fairly close and they've been here before) they go home as rapidly as possible.

If badly stressed, bass go to the nearest cover or the open bottom immediately after release. They usually just sit there until strength either returns or they die. And many die if modern livewell treatments and procedures aren't used.

Studies show displaced bass are more vulnerable to anglers than bass in their home areas. Territorial fish have the upper hand, and literally can chase away most bass, even much larger ones, from feeding areas that are worth defending. At the moment I feed a 16-inch fish that easily and repetitively chased away a 19-inch male even though the male is familiar with the feeding station. Likely, being forced away from better feeding areas and the instinct to move to find home, combine to create this increased vulnerability to anglers.

As a result of tournament releases, there is an increase in the number of vulnerable and catchable bass in and near release areas. Better-run events use a release boat and move caught fish away for release. But, this is really only a very minor improvement, as it doesn't take fish back to where they were captured and merely makes them harder for other anglers to locate. Nothing beats the survival of angling-caught bass that are immediately released at the point of capture.

If you wish to exploit the advantage created by recent releases, try both the immediate release area (bass recovering from stress that haven't yet moved away will hit as soon as they are able to move freely) and any clusters of cover and points along nearby shorelines where bass migrating away may pause and rest are likely targets. However, bass still recovering from capture stress created by the previous event(s) are even more likely to suffer post-release mortality if taken through the livewell and handling of yet another contest.

[This message has been edited by fishnAddict (edited 06-24-2003).]

[Forestlaker]

Thanks for the article Fishnaddict. It answered a lot of my questions.

[Guest]

So basically in 99% of the natural lakes, fish make it back home and fast because everywhere in the lake is a near release.