This article follows our previous one, Centripetal Displacement: Where Do All the Bass Go After Weigh‑In? Rusty Wright, Associate Professor – Extension Specialist, School of Fisheries, Auburn University, addresses the issue in a question-and-answer format.
Q1. Do bass tournaments actually change where bass live in a reservoir, or just where we catch them? Explain redistribution vs. population size in plain language.
Tournaments do redistribute bass and can affect population size. During stressful conditions, especially in midsummer, fish can suffer significant mortality. This is mainly an issue for larger fish that are targeted in tournaments, so the total number of fish in the reservoir may not decline much. Remember, fish produce huge amounts of juveniles.
Q2. How long do relocated bass stay near a weigh-in site before they spread out, i.e., days–months window, and are there species differences?
I’m afraid this is one of those “it depends” kind of answers. In some cases, bass were found to disperse within a few days. Some individuals left the release site within 2 days, while others remained for 70 or more days. In a study in Lake Martin, the number of tournament-released fish caught by electrofishing within 10 km of the released site dropped through time, but dropped dramatically after 3 months. Bass dispersed further and faster in the spring compared to the fall. It is difficult to determine overall if there are strong differences in dispersal differences among different bass species. In the Lake Martin study, Alabama Bass and largemouth had similar rates of dispersal. In other studies, smallmouth bass dispersed more rapidly, but so have largemouth in other systems. It is hard to separate the nature of the release site (constricted bay vs open main reservoir), water temperature, time of year, etc.
Q3. Do most bass ever make it back to where they were originally caught?
In some cases, they can return to the specific site. It is definitely the case in smaller systems. I have seen bass released in small impoundments and lakes return from across the system up to a half a mile or so within a day or 2. Fish caught more than 10 km from the release site tend not to return to the specific capture site. In some cases, the fish returns to the general area of capture and not the specific site. In a paper that just came out, nearly all of a group of smallmouth bass dispersed from the weigh-in site within 25 days, and ten of 16 returned to their original capture site up to 63 km away.
Q4. From a management standpoint, is this a problem—or just a quirk of modern bass fishing? Is there an impact regarding local density, catch rates, and predator–prey dynamics around release points (marinas or ramps)?
There can be impacts of stockpiling. Studies have shown densities of bass increased from 50-100% in enclosed embayments due to tournament releases. These high densities can certainly result in reduced prey fish in those areas. Some studies have shown that bass in these release areas have lower body condition. This is likely due to both the reduction in prey and the stress of being caught, hauled, and released. Holding the fish or even stocking the fish at high density can lead to disease transmission, especially because the fish will be somewhat stressed and may have lost some of their protective slime coat or have some small injuries.
Q5. What simple steps can tournament organizers take to reduce extreme stockpiling? Mobile release boats? Multiple release points? Seasonal considerations (avoid the hottest water for long transports)? Better fish care to keep mortality low?
All of these approaches are a good idea. I have concerns about the tournaments with remote weigh-in sites. It just seems like a lot of added stress to haul the fish that far. If it is only the top few anglers, then it probably is not significant to the bass population. Water temperature is the largest factor affecting bass stress. Unfortunately, attempting to do mobile releases and multiple releases, especially during warmer seasons, can result in very high stress and mortality. Mobile release boats and multiple weigh-in sites could be positive, but only if the fish handling and care are maintained at a high level. Trying to put too many fish in the tanks on a mobile release boat can result in low oxygen and high ammonia, resulting in high bass mortality. While we would like to disperse the fish, it may be best to just release the fish as quickly as possible. Of course, paper tournaments where the fish are weighed and released immediately are ideal for the fish, but may not be practical for all tournament formats. One approach to reduce stockpiling is to have multiple good weigh-in sites on the large reservoirs and lakes, requiring the tournaments to reserve different sites, thus spreading out the releases.
Q6. If you could design the “ideal” weigh-in and release protocol, what would it look like?
Again, assuming that the tournament can’t go to a paper immediate release format, the measure, weigh, and release protocol should be focused on maintaining good water quality in the live wells and quickly and efficiently moving the fish through the process. The fish should remain in the live well on the boat until they can quickly be brought up to be weighed. If tanks of water are provided for the weigh-in bags of fish, the water should be held near or slightly cooler than the surface water of the reservoir. Dissolved oxygen should be maintained at saturation, and ammonia should be monitored or kept at a low level with fresh water flushing or the use of chemicals to bind up the ammonia. The weigh-in station should be shaded.
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