This question is to all bass tournament fisherman. If a bass is caught in a tournament then taken many miles away in a live well to a weighin then realeased at the weighin area do you think that fish makes the long journey back to its original home, or does it find a suitable home near by where it was realeased?

Sometimes they return, sometimes not. That's why some tournament anglers focus on ramp areas of recent tournaments for retreads.

I agree with Fouz. All depends. I think the larger the fish the higher the probability it returns home. Big fish got big because they found an environment they could thrive in. It's tough to give that up. I don't have any proof here, just my gut feel on things.

That is what I�m thinking. The nicest marinas hold the biggest tournaments. Hoping the bass will be nearby.

NO NO NO!! Bass are like kids, run them off for a while and they always come back.

Good read from John Hope Tracking Trophies. (by ken smith)

http://www.insideline.net/features/2016/10/31/tracking-trophy-bass-with-john-hope

That's a great read right there, and I knew it, JUST LIKE KIDS!

some tagging studies from 20 years ago or more proved that the lunkers do. BUT

Gene Gilland of BASS told me about a big study done in Alabama recently proved that was wrong and that some bass actually were caught within a mile of the release site up to a year later.


Everyone who fishes the big tournaments out of Lake Fork Marina pretty much knows where we dump the fish from the live release boat. And on a multiday tournament fish are caught from that area on occasion. But members of my bass club have gone there on the following Thursday and have had very little luck. And the schools of bass deposited there do not show up on electronics.

I weighed in the same fish caught 5 days apart in the almost exact same spot. The fish was caught aprox 4 miles from where it was weighed in 5 days prior...

So say you're tournament starts out of Cassle Boykin on Rayburn.. You make the run ALL the way down and catch a 5 pound near the dam.

You're saying that fish will swim all the way from Cassle Boykin back down to the dam no problem? Not a smart [censored] question. If that's the case then that's pretty cool

In John's book mentioned above a bass was caught in front of Jackson hill that had a transmitter on it and was weighed at twin Dykes by the dam. Fish was back in its home in front of Jackson hill the next day.

Post mortem? No. Not after the deep fryer. Jk....

I think most eventually wind up back in the areas they were caught. Whatever reason they have for being there will likely draw them back again.

Good stuff, Pukeface. Thanks for posting...hadn't read that in a while.

Yes, They may not immediately, hence retreads. I also believe, that if they find a better environment on
their journey back they will stay.

https://www.bradwiegmann.com/fish-biolog...ssissippi-.html

"Due to the variable results from these studies, it is hard to make specific conclusions relative to Sam Rayburn or Toledo Bend reservoirs. In general, it appears that if largemouth bass are released after tournaments in good shape, only short-term stockpiling occurs at release sites, as most fish disperse from release sites within 2-3 months and up to 40% of these fish may return to original capture sites. Although fish displaced up to 13 miles have demonstrated homing abilities, few make it back to original areas if displaced over 6 miles. In contrast, as tournament-related stress increases, bass will disperse less. Specific rates of movement following release are likely affected by available habitat, food availability, location of release (main lake or cove), fish size, and water temperature."

WOW.. I've made that run in a fast boat, it took 20-25 mins on a calm day hammer down.. I don't doubt it, the blk bass is an amazing creature..

A resident fish I believe returns home. I've read John's book many times and believe it to be the gospel. Here's the kicker that can flaw any study on this. We all know there are resident fish and nomadic fish. I suppose you would first have to talk to the bass and find out if it was nomadic or resident.

According to John it depends on size. Once they hit 7lbs, they are virtually all residents. You don't get huge without a reliable daily intake of food accessible with relatively little effort. Tough to do that if you are spending calories swimming all over. The study mentioned by SAtopwater is concerning. If a certain portion of even large fish don't make it back to their resident areas, those fish probably wind up struggling. Not saying they die, but it seems like their odds of gaining weight in a new environment would go down dramatically. Long hauls of big fish in tournaments could be very taxing on a population

I am aware of a large number of private water double digit fish that were transferred to a new environment loaded with forage and evidence indicates they did not do well. .

interesting read. I would have never thought that. Figured they would find a new home near the area they were released.

I�ve seen it happen twice in the last two years.

I caught an 8.5 on a spot at Squaw Creek in a BLT tournament. 11 months later, my tournament partner caught the exact same fish on the exact same spot with the same bait during the Fish N Chips tournament. That fish won us both of those tournaments.

This year, at Lewisville, I caught a 9.40 off a spot close to Lake Park in April to help me win an ABA tournament. 4 months later, a couple of my buddies caught the same fish on the exact same spot to help them win that night tournament on Aug 25th.

Big fish absolutely have a �home� they return to. Might not be every single one, but the bigger and older a bass gets, the more territorial they�ll be.

How did you determine they were the same fish.

Look at the markings. Pretty easy to tell they�re the same fish. A bass� markings are unique to the fish, kind of like a fingerprint.

Does this help?

I believe that the majority of them do end up back at their "home", though some may return immediately and some may take a little longer to return.

Makes it funny how we use $4000 GPS's to navigate the lakes, but these fish travel from one end to another by themselves...

I caught a 7.10 off the clear creek bridge at cedar creek on a Sunday weighed it at Merimac Marina and released her ,the next saturday caught the same fish on the same bait on the opposite end of the same bridge , when i took her out of the net my middle finger went through a hole she had in her lower jaw so i know she was same fish . Also she weighed 7.09 aweek later , won 2 Big bass and 2 tournaments with her.Been over20 years ago and havent seen her since.

Bass always come back thats where they live well around where they live