Centripetal Displacement: Where Do All the Bass Go After Weigh‑In?

Ron McDonald, Publisher & Editor, Southern Fishing News

On a busy tournament reservoir, weigh‑ins can materially reshape the spatial distribution of bass in a lake.

This article is neither pro nor anti-tournament. The core issue addressed here is about the mass relocation of bass caught and later released after weigh-ins and the impact on a fishery. Please note, I am actually a “retired” tournament angler, having fished scores of bass club tournaments, community events, fundraising tournaments, and state Bass Nation (then Federation) qualifying tournaments. Southern Fishing News created and produced an All Star Bassin’ Team and Top Rod Championship tournaments. So there goes the “anti-tournament” argument.

It’s a fact: tournament weigh‑ins and fish releases absolutely redistribute bass — sometimes dramatically — but the impact depends on the fishery, the season, and the scale of events. And the science behind it is richer than most anglers realize.

The Core Issue: “Mass Relocation”
Tournament anglers catch fish from miles of shoreline, creek arms, and offshore structure. Then — in a single afternoon — up to hundreds of those fish are usually released at one concentrated point. Biologists call this “centripetal displacement.”

Every weekend across the U.S., boat ramps turn into small cities. Often, multiple tournaments are fishing the same lake on the same day and from the same ramp. That is hardly surprising with the number of benefit tournaments, bass club tournaments, local, area, regional tour events, and the high-dollar pro events — all scheduling their tournaments on a limited supply of days and waters.

At the end of the day of fishing, trucks with trailers line up at the ramp, livewells are humming, and anglers haul in the best five (usually) bass they could scratch out of the body of water. By afternoon, those fish — caught from every corner of the lake — are all swimming in the same water at the weigh‑in site.

I reached out to Damon Lee Abernethy, Assistant Chief of Fisheries, Alabama Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries, for some expert insight into the issue. Regarding fish re-distribution after release, Abernethy said, “In traditional live weigh-in tournaments, fish can be transported and eventually released long distances from where they were originally caught. A large percentage of them never return home, and the released fish are concentrated around the release site in densities that cannot be sustained given the available space and forage.

For instance, our Lake Martin study showed that the total pounds of bass within 1 mile of the Wind Creek State Park release site increased by up to 100% due to stockpiling of tournament-caught bass.“

It’s one of the great unspoken truths of modern tournament fishing — we move fish. A lot of fish. And we often move them far from “home.”

For decades, anglers have argued about whether that matters. Some swear the lake “fishes empty” after a big event. Others say the fish spread back out and everything returns to normal. And for a long time, that debate lived in the realm of gut feeling and dock talk.

Not anymore. Science has caught up.

Across reservoirs from California to Alabama, radio‑tag and acoustic telemetry studies have confirmed what many anglers suspected — tournament weigh‑ins can impact the distribution of bass in a lake. Not the population size — the distribution. Where the fish live. Where they feed. Where they get caught. And that matters.

The Stockpile Effect
When hundreds of bass are released at a single ramp, they don’t immediately swim back to the ledge they came from or the upriver grass bed they were pulled out of. Many don’t return at all. Some stay near the release site for days. For weeks. Some for months. And some for the entire season.

Abernethy commented on this question, “Most bass have left the general vicinity of the release site within a couple of months. Stockpiling is cumulative and depends upon the size and/or total number of tournaments contributing to it.”

I also asked, “Do most bass ever make it back to where they were originally caught?” He replied, “It depends on how far they were moved. If they were moved less than 5 miles, then many of them do eventually go back home. However, none of those that were moved more than 10 miles from their capture site returned home. If given enough time, most bass at least make it back to the general area of the reservoir where they were caught.”

On heavy tournament lakes, the stockpiling effect compounds. Auburn University’s modeling on Lake Neely Henry in Alabama suggests that 12–22% of the entire bass population can accumulate within a few miles of the primary weigh‑in ramp over time — an area representing only a sliver of the reservoir.

One additional point about the effect of stockpiling — tournament stockpiling can have biological impacts under certain circumstances. For instance, the increased competition can lower fish condition (weight loss) because there isn’t enough forage to keep them all healthy. The fish don’t die of starvation, but they can get a little “racy” around the release sites.

That’s not a crisis. But it is a shift.

Stockpiling means the lake’s “bass map” gets redrawn around the weigh-in site, at least temporarily.

Abernethy said this about fisheries management regarding stockpiling and bass re-distribution, “At this point, it hasn’t caused us to change our management strategies, but it does impact fish populations. Artificially increasing bass densities in an area of the reservoir requires them to compete with other fish already in the area. It isn’t a natural or sustainable situation.

That’s why they leave to seek out areas with less competition. But the anglers keep bringing them back. Things are a little different from the angler’s perspective. Observant anglers have learned that bass are often more plentiful and easier to catch in the vicinity of popular tournament ramps. Even the world’s best anglers know they can be very competitive in high-stakes bass tournaments by focusing almost exclusively on “retreads.“

Winners, Losers, and the Middle Ground
This isn’t a story about villains. Tournament anglers aren’t harming the fishery. State agencies aren’t asleep at the wheel. And weekend anglers aren’t imagining things.

Redistribution changes the feel of the lake, even if the fishery is fine. Biologists are right that:
• Redistribution is real
• It’s not inherently harmful
• It could be better managed

The truth sits in the middle: We’re not hurting the fish per se — we’re just moving them. And we’re moving them more than we think. For example, Tournament A releases fish caught on Saturday afternoon. The bass begin moving at some point (more on this later) away from the Tournament A release point. A week or a month later, Tournament B hits the lake. Those bass that have finally moved on from Tournament A’s release are caught again, and released after weigh-in at the same ramp the bass just left not so long ago. I guess we could call them the “rubber band bass” — they keep getting caught and brought back to the beginning. No wonder few ever return to the area where they were first caught,

Why Stockpiling Matters
Bass are home‑range creatures. They don’t wander aimlessly. They live in patterns — seasonal, structural, and spatial. When we relocate them en masse, we interrupt those patterns and create the stockpiling problem.

Stockpiling doesn’t kill the fish. But it does alter the lake’s bass locations.
• It changes where forage gets pressured.
• It changes where predators stack up.
• It changes where anglers catch fish — and where they don’t.

On lakes with dozens of tournaments a year, stockpiling adds up.

A Way Forward
This isn’t a problem that requires controversy, finger‑pointing, or reinventing the sport. Efforts to negate stockpiling already exist, and many organizations are using them.
• Mobile release boats.
• Multiple release points.
• On‑the‑water weigh‑and‑release formats

Mobile release boats and multiple release points don’t eliminate displacement, but they break the stockpiling issue. They spread the fish back out. They keep the lake’s natural distribution closer to what it was before blast‑off. The third approach, on‑the‑water weigh‑and‑release formats, used by the MLF, would appear to be the best solution, albeit with implementation issues for many relatively small tournament sponsors and officials.

While larger tournament organizations are making a serious effort to manage released fish, the release strategies are not without drawbacks.

Abernethy broke down release management like this: “In theory, mobile release boats/trailers that distribute released fish throughout the reservoir would help prevent stockpiling at the release site; however, keeping bass confined to holding tanks in high densities for long periods of time increases mortality rates. Particularly during warmer weather.

So, while it might address one problem by preventing stockpiling at the release sites, it creates another by increasing total mortality.

If water quality in the tanks gets poor enough, the entire payload can be lost rather quickly and easily. The most obvious and effective solution is to adopt catch-weigh-release tournament formats, which is by far the best solution for the health of our fish populations, and eliminates the expense of having to maintain staff, boats, tanks, trailers, pumps, oxygen, chemical treatments, and other fish care equipment associated with live weigh-ins.”

So there you have it, “Just the facts, ma’am.” I hope the information I presented here gives you a better fact-based insight into the redistribution issue. Feel free to make your opinion known.

I leave you with this final comment from Abernethy, “Beyond that (catch and release), there’s very little that can be done to improve the live weigh-in process. Most legitimate tournament trails are already doing the best they can.

The damage is done by hours spent riding around in anglers’ livewells before they’re ever turned over to tournament officials. As long as competitors are holding fish in their livewells all day, the delayed mortality is unavoidable.

A well-run tournament cannot reduce delayed mortality, but a poorly run tournament can certainly add to it. That’s why we strongly recommend using catch-weigh-release tournament formats.”

While traditional weigh-ins have long been the norm, ADCNR recommends transitioning to Catch-Weigh-Release (CWR) or Catch-Measure-Release (CMR) formats. These modern methods offer several key advantages:

Superior Fish Health: By releasing fish immediately at the site of capture, we eliminate the stress of live well confinement, water temperature fluctuations, fish stockpiling, and handling.

Protecting Trophy Potential: These formats ensure that the largest, most mature fish—the backbone of our size structure—stay healthy and in their home territory.
Reduced Logistics: Tournament organizers can maintain high-stakes competition without the need for heavy weigh-in equipment or long wait times for the fish.

Proven Success: These formats are already being used with great enthusiasm by kayak anglers and conservation-focused bass clubs across the state.
— From ADCNR website

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