Henry Hefner wrote:
Doug wrote:


The possible implications are food for thought, such as Bass
populations declining in a particular watershed to a point of where it
could effect the entire balance of the system, simply by releasing the
fish in another location. It's rare that they make it back home after
weigh in.


http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/publi.../largebass.pdf

Thoughts? Opinions?

Doug

I'm really taxing my rememberer here,(do you smell wood burning?) but I
seem to recall an article several years back on the Texas Parks and
Wildlife website about tagging bass to see if they hung around weigh-ins
at Lake Fork. I've tried searching for the article but can't locate it.
This study showed them returning to the area they were caught in rather
quickly, even when released miles away. It impressed me because I had
expected the opposite result.

Found it, sort of. It wasn't TPWD, I read it on the Texas Fishing Forum.
I posted about it here on 3/25/04. Here's a copy/paste:

I just read an interesting post on TFF
about bass behavior. copy/paste:

Jesse Parker did a survey on Lake Fork several years ago. He had a study
of several dozen trophy fish. He advertised a bounty for any bass
between 10 and 13 pounds that did not qualify for Share a Lunker program.

He had the angler complete a survey and then had local business donate
money for the fiberglass reproduction of the fish. He then tagged the
bass and released them all from the same location. On the tag was a
bounty for any angler who caught the fish again.

The second angler then completed the same survey, un-aware of the the
first survey. They were paid cash money for the second bounty as well.

The results were incredible. The first fish to be re-caught was caught
three days later. She had travel 17 miles by water, caught within
casting distance of her first catch.

Over the course of the next year, the majority of these fish were
re-caught. The results were almost identical for the most part. The vast
majority of the fish, came from the same area, during the same lunar
cycle, and most often, caught on the same or very similar type bait.

The results were published in an Angler's Choice magazine back in 1997
or so. I know Jesse personally and he let me review the surveys one
evening himself. It was quite incredible. Due to the expense of the
program, it only lasted one year. But when you have two anglers who
complete the same survey with no knowledge of what the other one said,
it was remarkable.

It really opened my eyes to how fish migrated and responded to
tournament pressure.