Some major tournaments like the MLF Bass Pro Tour weigh and release bass right where they’re caught, but most transport them to distant weigh-ins. (MLF)

Every weekend throughout bass country, tens of thousands of adult bass are caught in tournaments, transported to a weigh-in and then released back into the lake or river.

Extensive studies have shown that most of these fish survive the experience, at least in the cooler months, with mortality typically 10 percent or less. 

But do all those fish transported from the waters where they grew up to the release sites ever return to their home turf?

Research over the last decade indicates most do not, for better or worse.

A recent study in Ontario of bass caught in a tournament, brought to a central location and then released had some interesting results. Radio-tags were used to determine movement and survival after release. 

The first conclusion was that most released bass stayed close to the release site, within a quarter-mile, for about two weeks, apparently acclimating to their new situation before striking out for greener pastures.

It took approximately two weeks for displaced bass to move more than a quarter-mile from the release site. 

No fish displaced greater than about 5 miles from their capture site returned to their home range. 

In a much larger study, Lake Champlain researchers tagged 1,160 largemouth and 1,141 smallmouth bass that were caught by anglers fishing in eight major bass fishing tournaments based in Plattsburgh, New York.

A majority of the radio-tagged smallmouth bass (56%) quickly dispersed out of the bay where they were released. Only 43% of the largemouth bass left the bay, and they did so after staying near the release site for over two months. Due to the amount of public fishing areas along the Plattsburgh waterfront, bass that remained near the release site were vulnerable to heavy recreational fishing pressure after the tournaments.

The largies that eventually left the bay did so by following the shoreline, while the smallmouths struck out across open bays to get back to prime habitat. Again, almost none of the largemouths returned to the distant sites where they were caught.

A study on California’s Lake Shasta indicated that the majority of tournament-caught largemouth never travel more than 2 miles from their release site. 

The gist of these studies is that largemouths in particular are stockpiled near the release sites, a fact that doesn’t escape local anglers who swarm to these areas after major tournaments.

Part of the excitement of the Bassmaster Classic is the on-stage weigh-in, which sometimes takes place miles from the tournament lake. (B.A.S.S.)

So, there are a couple of concerns here in terms of the quality of bass fishing in hard-fished tournament lakes. Some famous lakes like Guntersville, Kentucky and Pickwick may have multiple large tournaments every weekend from February through early November, which means huge numbers of large bass are caught and transported to the popular tournament weigh-in sites each weekend.

The large-scale population transfer from prime fish producing habitat to what may or may not be good habitat at the weigh-in sites, and the fact that the fish don’t move much after release, is an indicator that too many tournaments may not be good for the overall population of larger bass, despite the all-release ethic.

If most of the adult bass are removed from prime habitat on a regular basis, the odds of trophy-class fish would appear to be significantly reduced.

To their credit, Major League Fishing’s primo series now employs a catch-weigh-release system right on the water, with no displacement of fish and near 100 % survival. Most kayak events also operate this way. But there’s always a concern of honesty when there’s no observer in the boat, especially when there are considerable cash and product rewards on the line. 

As any angler knows, fishing a tournament release site during the week after a major tournament can produce some amazing fishing. And on heavily fished waters like many throughout the southeast, there’s a major tournament, or two or three, on most prime bass lakes every weekend.

Note that the biggest of them all, the Bassmaster Classic, uses a “bass barge” pontoon boat to carry the tournament catches to areas well away from the landing zone for the boats, somewhat equalizing the distribution and likely improving their long-term survival odds. But in general tournaments release the fish where they are weighed in.

Local tournaments typically weigh in fish at the launch area and release the fish into this same area. (ABT)

All of this may be a moot point if there are more tournament anglers who enjoy competition than there are local anglers who simply want to run out for a few hours in the evening and catch a few nice ones . . . and there might well be, or at least the tournament folks have a much stronger voice both in terms of social media and product development.

And it’s also true that thus far, at least, most fisheries biologists say that tournaments do not appear to be harming overall bass populations in most lakes. Whether that remains true now that the “cryptic” population of large fish is being caught regularly due to forward scan might be a question for a new study sometime soon. 

— Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com