With at least 60 major bass tournaments scheduled on Clear Lake this year and most of them operating out of Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport, a number of fishermen are saying that many of the fish caught in the tournaments will end up in the north end of the lake after being released. They could be correct.
Studies have shown that largemouth bass rarely move more than a couple of miles from where they were hatched. A study done in 1992 by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) at Lake Shasta showed largemouth bass move less than three miles from where they were released. The DFG tagged 125 tournament-caught smallmouth bass and 41 largemouth bass. The bass were released at the Silverthorn Marina and Bridge Bay.
Anglers who caught the tagged fish and returned the tags were asked to describe when and where they caught the fish. Bass movement was measured as the shortest distance from the point of release to the reported capture location. The experiment was monitored for three years.
Thirty-four tagged largemouth bass were caught during the three-year test. Of the tagged fish caught, 38 percent moved less than a mile from the release site and 62 percent traveled less than four miles. On the other hand, the study showed that smallmouth bass move several miles after being released. In fact, four of the smallmouth bass moved more than eight miles in just 10 days.
Back in 1990 when I was the tournament director for the Record-Bee/Bruno”s bass tournament I tagged 25 bass and released them at various locations in the Lakeport area, including five at the Skylark Motel. The tournament was held in February but the bass were released four months earlier. A $200 reward was offered for any tagged fish caught during the 30 days preceding the tournament. That means the tagged fish had been in the water for at least three months. Fishermen returned 10 tags. In fact, three of the tagged fish were caught at the docks at the Skylark Motel. That means those bass moved less than 10 yards in four months. What this indicates is that largemouth bass caught during a tournament in the south end of the lake and transported to a weigh-in site in Lakeport rarely return to the south end of the lake.
There have been concerns for years that when too many tournaments are held at one location there will be a “stockpiling” of fish near the weigh-in site. The DFG requires that either the bass be returned to the anglers after the weigh-in and released at least two miles off shore, or a release boat be used to release the bass. When the fish are returned to the fishermen they are normally released less than a mile from the weigh-in site. Release boats do travel about two miles from the weigh-in sites before releasing the fish.
The real concern is whether “stockpiling” of bass has an impact on the fishing in other parts of the lake or even on the bass themselves.
I can attest to the fact that you can stockpile bass. A good example was when most of the tournaments operated out of Skylark Motel in Lakeport. The docks just north of the Skylark Motel would be loaded with bass for several weeks after the tournament. The same held true in many areas near Redbud Park.
However, this stockpiling of fish appears to affect fishing very little. Creel surveys done by the DFG show the bass to be widely scattered around the lake. Electro-shocking studies have revealed the same thing. Apparently there are so many bass in Clear Lake that moving several thousand fish to different areas around the lake has little or no impact on the overall fishing.
As far as the bass themselves are concerned, Clear Lake has such a rich food supply that the bass find plenty of food near their release sites and just stay there.
DFG biologists have said that when stockpiling bass results in the fish having difficulty finding food, they could require that tournament weigh-in sites be spread around the lake. This is highly unlikely to ever occur on Clear Lake for several reasons. Bass tournaments provide a lot of tourist dollars for local communities. In fact, they compete to host the tournaments. Any regulation mandating that tournament organizations use a particular town for a weigh-in site would meet with strong opposition from local communities.
There is also the logistics problem for the tournament organizations. There are only a few locations suitable to hold tournaments. Trying to hold a major tournament at one of the smaller locations would be nearly impossible.
