I Have Been Kidnapped And Taken From My Home

[laker67]

A buddy ask this question, so I thought I would put it out there for some response.

Lets say you catch a bass at the 10mm of the big niangua, throw him in the live well and haul him to the 3mm of the glaize. After weigh-in, you release him. What happens to that fish? Does he swim back to the Big N, or stay put with the 30 other relocated fish? Lets say there are 2 tourneys each weekend, and another 10 fish from the Big N are relocated. After several weekends and a few years down the road, what replaces those keeper size fish in the same amount of time that they are being removed? The Big N is a small body of water with several fish being relocated on a weekly basis. I would venture to guess that 70% of the fish caught during tournaments on loz, are released on the glaize arm of the lake. How is this affecting the overall health and population of a lake? Are tournament fishermen shooting themselves in the foot?

[Jerry Rapp]

chances are very good that the fish goes out on PB 2 point, or just stays in the cove. It might move to the hump. Chances are a crawdad fishermen caught the fish Monday or Tuesday, and that was supper that night. Good for him(as long as he didn't take more than the legal limit). This has been going on for years, and LOZ is still one of the best lakes in the country. The regulations in place obviously seem to be working very good.

[kdan]

Well, Laker, that is a good point. I venture to say your numbers are way low, which is not the point. 3 years ago the Big Niangua was a hot honey hole, with lots of big fish being caught (and relocated to PB2, Linn Creek, Red Feather) The last 2 years has seen a decline in numbers of big ol bass on the Niangua. As for shooting ourselves in the foot, we just fish a different body of water, (and still move them to another area). Holpe I get to relocate 20 lbs this Sunday. lol I dunno, but this is food for thought.

[countryred]

Release fish areas always seem to have way bigger numbers but many unhealthy fish. The glaize has a tremendous amount of fish in the 15-17" range , plenty of big ones too.

I don't think they travel back that far, and some years good areas get depleted and other areas get hot. I remember when Millstone was a big weigh in site and alot of guys fished around it.

My old home lake , Mark Twain , had areas that always produced even though they were not close to the weigh in areas. I think it was due to them being the best spawning areas.

[kdan]

I for got to mention, 2 weeks ago 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers all relocated their fish from the Glaze back to the Osage. lol

[Al Agnew]

There have been studies done on this issue. They showed that some of the fish very quickly moved back to their old haunts (no idea how they found their way back, but they did). Others hung around the release area, and gradually dispersed. Seems that bass are individuals and don't all do the same things.