Update on that Texas Bass Tracking work

[coldfront]

ran across this today.. yes, I'm late to the game. 

always find it interesting to try and put real measured data together with experience, observation.  man, just think about the confluence of tracking technology and livescope/real imaging technology and how this really HELPS with a study like this.   for those who might not see water time for a bit yet?

part 6:  where do fish spend the majority of their time?  how do they react to trolling motors, big motors?


part 5:  talking about the second group of fish tagged for the study
https://i.ytimg.com/an_webp/f1sL9FZnS4g/mqdefault_6s.webp?du=3000&sqp=CMjWyZAG&rs=AOn4CLDwDc30CYna8rCZpAUIRXHGvr-30g

part 4:  electrofishing


part 3:  what do they do after release?

[Mike Cork]

They had the lead Biologist for this on the weekly radio show I listen too, Hookin Up and Tracking Down and the information was truly eye opening...

He is also an B.A.S.S. angler and he kept circling back to how often bass just hang out in open water not related to anything. We always assume (you know what that means) that there must be a creek channel bend or point or brush in one of these location but in reality, he said none of it was more important that anything else.

Another things that surprised him, and me (we know the lake so it may not come across as shocking to others, but a bass lived in the middle of the lake most of its life over 70 feet of water chasing shad. Then come spring it traveled up into Houssen Creek of Toledo Bend, some 15 miles way. What's significant, he explained, is this is where it was caught to be tagged. So maybe bass do go back to their original spawning location. As he pointed out, one bass or even a couple was not enough to bass more than a question about.

[coldfront]

mike, the more I listen, watch, read, the more I see how this stuff starts to fit together.  stopped thinking about 'a bass is a bass is a bass' long ago.  sure, it's one way to be successful and find fish on any body of water anywhere.  but to truly unlock the potential of a lake?

I've been thinking more and more that there are many 'sub-populations' of bass.  that a part of the population is much more nocturnal, while others are more daylight oriented.  and then I ran up on this tiny little lake back in Omaha years back that on my sonar, was best described as a 'salad bowl'.  the original creek channel had long ago silted in.  other than a few key shoreline spots and the dam, very little that had any rapid depth change.  some sparse standing timber still remained in one or two locations.

would have thought that those few locations would have been huge for targeting bass.  yes, there were always some there... but over time I started thinking that most of them oriented to the schools of baitfish (yellow bass, bluegill, YOY bass, crappie primarily) and then for a few months each spring, they'd 'enjoy' the stocker trout the DNR put in for spring time urban anglers.

locals referred to it as the 'dead sea'.  I loved it because there was a lot less pressure.  and some real magnums in there. 


this was that little 130 acre flood control reservoir



and this is what could be found there.  for those who were persistent

[Smallie_Stalker]

What's significant, he explained, is this is where it was caught to be tagged. So maybe bass do go back to their original spawning location.

Other species of fish do this so it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out to be true for bass too.

Some years back I read an article about a particular species of saltwater fish that supposedly traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to spawn in the exact location where they hatched from their own egg.

How scientists would know this is beyond me and I don't really buy it but it made for an interesting story.

But bass returning every year to the same location to spawn seems reasonably believable to me.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro  using Tapatalk

[coldfront]

But bass returning every year to the same location to spawn seems reasonably believable to me.

just read an article that suggests that bass that are caught off their bed do NOT return to the same bed...  know that some folks here will say 'but I see them go right back'.
some do.  but perhaps they don't go back to same place the following year?  let me see if I can find the article.

[Oldfart9999]

This all goes to show much we still have to learn.
Rodney