By moving, I don't mean swimming around. So a couple weeks ago my sons buddies are out practicing before a tourney and they kept their keepers in the livewell until the end of practice and then release them together in one area. Their thought process is/was to put the fish where they wanted them. Anyway, on tourney day they came in 35th place. Their logic didn't work. Fast forward to today. My son and I our out practicing for a tourney on Sunday. We see one of the guys in the club catch a keeper and put it in the livewell. I know he is practicing as well so he wasn't saving it for dinner. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn't cheating.(keeping the fish until tourney day) I'm going to assume he was doing the same as my sons buddies and release all his practice keepers in one area. Is this a common practice in local clubs? Does it increase your odds?(didn't with my sons buddies) Is it ethical?

I don't think that it will increase your odds, but maybe they keep them out to practice culling, or final bag weight... Maybe just making sure his fish will survive in the live well. I've also heard of people putting the male in the live well when they are on beds to coax mama to come out and play. Never tried it.

Releasing fish in one area and hoping they stay is very unlikely. Just my opinion

To my knowledge most of the bass released anywhere in the lake body return to there favorite area within days.

I've heard of catching keeper smallies on a spot then releasing them a distance away as to not mess up the school (smallies talk) for tournament day.

I can't understand catching a bunch of fish off one spot on practice days. Electronics show fish, catch one or two. If they are good get out of there and leave the rest alone.