Winter 2024
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CLEAR LAKE DATA
Back to our Clear Lake Example – looking at CDFW published tournament data, in 2022 over 41 events were conducted and 14,108 fish were weighed in at these permitted events. Based on the study results noted above, that means nearly approx. half (7,000 fish) were added to areas within 1-2 miles of tournament release sites. Additionally, that also means that only 2,000 of those fish captured returned to their point of capture. For my specific weekend approximately 22 fish would return over the course of perhaps several months to a year. What does this portend? Well – it makes me wonder how these areas can seemingly replenish with fish with this type of capture and release and how areas around release sites are not just packed with fish (maybe they are, but those fish just don’t bite)?
There are numerous published articles documenting the utilization and hierarchal use of the most advantageous feeding spots/locations. My hypothesis is that these community holes share several factors in common;
1) Consistent access to copious food
2) Access to deep water refuge
3) Some degree of cover/structure and all these factors in relatively close proximity minimizing the effort needed to feed, rest and recover and have protection from predators.
I also hypothesize that these areas work in conjunction with others nearby, which may or may not be as heavily utilized and these fish can move between especially as bait moves around.
I suspect that bass move around much more than we believe – this is the only explanation I can come up with to explain how community holes likes these noted on Clear
Lake can consistently pump out the numbers, and often quality, of bass. However, based on the literature, I would also expect to see much higher abundances of fish near common tournament release sites. I hypothesize that these areas are transitional, meaning some fish stay, some move on both seasonally and annually, in conjunction with local resident fish.
I also suspect that these fish congregate near common geographical features, ditches, rock piles, points that provide temporary cover, feeding and resting opportunities, until they need to move to find food, avoid competition, predation, water quality conditions, etc. I believe that different species of course have much different behavior patterns with regard to moving around and that can be quite variable based on location, season and forage base.
In the case for Clear Lake, I think there are three primary factors at play allowing for my observations:
1) Solid annual year class recruitment
2) Greater movement of fish
3) General principles regarding advantageous feeding locations where greater numbers of fish congregate.
These locations have relative, nearby, access to either shallow or deep-water cover where fish routinely move between. Like, have you ever noticed when the bait disappears and bass stop feeding, they seemingly disappear?
It would be great to better understand these behaviors. I am most interested in the status of post release fish that stay close to the release site. If so, few are recaptured, and a high percentage stay close, within a mile or so of the release site, what these fish tend to do post release since we do not tend to see huge concentrations of fish captured in these release areas.
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