Great question Carl ... not a lot of research has been done on the effects of late season tournaments - were bass from one area - perhaps an overwintering one, are released in another. Questions such as you bring up and others - like do the bass try to return to exact same overwintering area or do they settle for other suitable over wintering area that year near release site ... all good questions and again, not a lot of good conclusive evidence either way (that I know of at least.)

Mike mentions that perhaps our recent BPS Lake Simcoe event might enlighten us a bit - and he's right. This project began last year - when we tagged smallmouth during the same tournament (then called Crackle Cup, held 1st sat in Nov) and released them in Lefroy. Two weeks later- mid Nov .. we had our first re-cap, a 5 pounder in great shape.

Throughout this 2007 bass season - beginning shortly after the opener, more tag returns came in from that event. From only 86 bass tagged in 06, we had about 10 (gotta check my data sheets to be sure) re-caught and tag #'s called in. All were in good shape when caught - although a couple of recreational anglers did harvest their fish. Some of these bass were even fizzed at last year's event and showed no outward trauma months later because of it. Tagged Bass came from as far away as Cooch, up near Strawberry and in Kempenfelt.

So, although our sample size in the grand scheme of things is very small, it is encouraging to know that these bass caught during late season bass tournaments are NOT dying!
It's an incredibly interesting research project for Lake Simcoe that now involves Dr Bruce Tufts and Matt DeMille of Queens University, Bass Pro Shops, the Aurora Bassmasters and the Barrie Bassmasters. Corporate support is forthcoming as well...

We'll keep you big fat bass readers up to speed ... if this kind of thing interests you that is?

Wil