I used to hang a chain stringer with keepers off my yak while crappie fishing or for Sandies under lights. I would usually nab 10-15 before the bite seemed to wear off. I would notice the stringer clang agaisnt the hull, or even jingle as they attempted escape, etc. No biggie.
Then I switched to carrying the cooler onboard with me. Just tossed em in with the ice bottles and drinking water. Then I limited out on crappie. Next week a few crappie and a limit of Sandies.

I understand nylon/poly or cable stringers as well as the cooler are options so am not looking for those suggestions, but rather to specifically address the question:

Do keeper fish on a stringer generate noise, scent or other signals that turn their brethren off/interpret as a warning or distress signal?

I am interested in any factual information and secondarily on personal experience, heresay, fisherman tales and opinions.

Thanks,
Cyp

I think any unusual (like clanging, rattling, thumping, etc.)noise would alert and perhaps spook the fish.

yes.

they all get together and say stay away stay away

If anything, it would be any noise produced by the stringer. I fish out of a canoe, and in certain situations....i.e. fishing vertical for crappie in deep water timber, I have had the bite die off if I have flopping crappie in the cooler. The thuds resonate through the canoe.

When fish are stressed they pee in the water to warn other fish and do so out of fear. So, I think fish on a stringer could warn other fish of danger.

They never did seem to bother my catfishing from the bank anyway. But on the bad side of them type of stringers. I lost 7 nice channel cats about 6# each because they twisted the chain so much that it broke just as I was reaching down to take them home. Seen all of them swim away together. lesson learned with the metal stringers then.

when i was in junior high we had a abandoned house down the street with a swimming pool that we converted to our fishing hole. we stocked it with all species of fish, frogs, turtles, crawdads, etc. once we caught a fish and released it of any kind it would swim to the drain, deepest part, and the whole ecosystem would suround it and we would not get a bite 4 hours. after 10 years as live exhibits mgr. for bps i learned why. underwater creatures communicate by chemical extractions. just sayin...

Two weeks ago I was fishing for Crappie (off the bank)and it was slow had 3 crappie on the stringer. Had not caught a fish in about a hour. Tossed my gig right by the stringer and ended up catching 8 crappie by the stringer. It was about 8 ft deep below the stringe of fish. I thought that the crappie were hanging around the crappie on the stringer. Really don't know but it seemed like the crappie ganged up around the ones on the stringer.

Well I catch and release a lot and they don't seem to stop biting. May be they tell the others I'm a nice guy and wont keep them........

Yes.

I used to keep my crappie in a fish basket and it would bring in more fish most of the time. The fish in the basket would knock off scales and spit up food,etc. and it would attrack others. It works like chumming the area does.

I raise fish in my own pond at home and am developing a strain of what I call "Judas" bass. I train them to go out and bring other unsuspecting bass back to the boat where I can catch 'em. Haven't perfected it yet. So far all the Judas bass tested have just swam off and not come back.

i dont think it bothers them, ive had a stringer of white bass in the water draging them behind a canoe and there was white bass right behind them.