I can't remember if it was Donald Harper or Ken A., but there were studies where bass only moved 400 yards (for the most part) their entire lives.
It was me talking about Dennis Canada's 15.63 from Fork. His fish Missy lived in Wolf Creek and spent most of her life suspended in a brushpile in 12' of water. When she would go on a feed she would travel along the treeline for 300-400 yards at times criss-crossing the creek channel that was 20+ feet deep but for the most part stayed in 12' of water.
I have sat directly over her and bounced a jig trough the brush as she ignored my offering but she was there. We confirmed by the signal she was sending. When she was resting in her "home" it was impossible to make her bite.
I do believe there are transient fish and resident fish in any given lake. I feel strongly the Goliaths of the lake are resident fish. Transient fish are the schools of 2-5# fish that roam. I believe once they exceed 12# they become more like loners and rarely group up. These individual fish defy most of the rules and may never bite an artificial.
I firmly believe the current State Record of 18.18 bite a crappie while Mr. St. Clair was unhooking another crappie and had his attention turned away from the rod he told me he caught The Fish on. I asked him about that in person and he did say it was possible. He told me when he turned around to check the rods on the other side of his boat (he had 10-12 rods out) one was bent double. He thought he had a big catfish until she surfaced. The rest is now history.