Spawn...riddle Me This

[slonezp]

Does a bass, or any other fish, for that matter, have an internal "homing" device to the bed? Reason I ask is I was out yesterday prefishing, and caught a fish my son swears we weighed in or culled 2 weeks ago. He also swears we caught it on the same lake (I fish a 12,000 acre river system with about a dozen small lakes) He does all the bumping and is in charge of the livewell. He recognized a black spot on the hindquarters of a bass I caught yesterday. The area I caught it was at least a 5 mile swim from the weigh in and if we culled it more like 10 miles away. 

Opinions?

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Mmm idk that's a good question.. I would like to say yes they do.. but that's kinda of stretch

[ClackerBuzz]

i was out with a smallie guide a few weeks ago. he grew up on the lake and said he's caught the same bass bedding in the exact same spot year after year.  some literally clear out the same 3ft radius of stones. picky picky

[slonezp]

i was out with a smallie guide a few weeks ago. he grew up on the lake and said he's caught the same bass bedding in the exact same spot year after year.  some literally clear out the same 3ft radius of stones. picky picky

That's interesting. I've caught the same fish repeatedly before, but on smaller water. I could tell by the markings. To me, it seems like a long way to go, but love makes us do funny things. I guess it may not be far fetched since salmonoids return to their birthplace to reproduce. I have also seen shows about sharks traveling hundreds of miles only to return to their stomping grounds. The bass spawn is such a short window and that's why I'm questioning it.  

[Bankbeater]

I heard one time that after a tourney the fish were tagged and then released.  The bass made their way back to the area where they were caught, but I don't remember what the timeframe looked like.

[Sam]

Yes. I have read articles about tournament bass returning to the spot they were living after being released.

 

I have never put much stock in that theory but it seems that you guys are beginnnig to change my way of thinking.

 

I do know that if you catch a bass and release it in the same spot right after you caught it the bass will return back to its original haunts.

 

What blows my mind is that you can prefish a body of water on a Thursday or Friday and catch some beauties and they will not be in the same location on Saturday or Sunday.  I was told they are there but they may have gone deeper of down the bank for up to a half mile.

 

The above theory is also professed for cold fronts. The bass are still in their original areas but they will hole-up or go deeper when a cold front passes through the area.

[PABASS]

Another magazine had an article about tagged smallies and most fish were routine, returned to the same spots to spawn from the year before.

 

"Most bass remained within the Beaver Island study site. Two fish moved more than 40 miles from the tagging site. During postspawn, a high percentage of tagged bass were found in the same location as the year before. General movement patterns (moving roughly half a mile per day) indicated smallmouth bass remain close to shore during prespawn and spawn, but move farther offshore during postspawn (females move farther offshore than males)."

[slonezp]

 

What blows my mind is that you can prefish a body of water on a Thursday or Friday and catch some beauties and they will not be in the same location on Saturday or Sunday.  I was told they are there but they may have gone deeper of down the bank for up to a half mile.

 

The above theory is also professed for cold fronts. The bass are still in their original areas but they will hole-up or go deeper when a cold front passes through the area.

Funny you mention this I prefished Thurs and Fri with highs in the 80's and wind blowing 30+ Sunday, tourney day, high was 55 and winds around 10-15. We caught less fish but larger fish during prefish. On tourney day, my son and I probably boated 50 bass but our best 5 were 8.49 @ weighin. If it wasn't for a couple boats weighing in at least 1 bedding female, big bag would have been 10lbs. I didn't change presentations until my son had caught the first 3 keepers on a worm. I was hoping for a jig to produce like it was during prefish where I had landed a few 3lb+ fish but they wanted nothing to do with it. Someone pulled a 4.79lb spawned out female from one of my spots as we were leaving. I never saw what he as using, but it won big bass. The good fish were there I couldn't dial them in.     

[PondBoss]

I wrote a paper in college based on the idea that fish are basically like people.  They live where they live, Fish live deep or shallow and will live there 95% of the year.  People live up North or down South and will stay there 95% of the year.  Fish like people will go on vacation, but almost always come back home.  Even if I go on vacation to France I'll still know how to get home and most likely go back, unless I find something in France that is better and decide to stay.  Much like fish can be caught in a tournament and be released a few miles away from their home.  If there is no reason to stay, they will most likely head back home.