Good question, I too was wondering...didn't have an answer as new to club, so forwarded the question to the president. In a nutshell - With a fall release in the river, they would stay concentrated until spring at which point the cormorants would find them and clean them out. With a fall lake release, they are well dispersed from release locations come spring. Also, apparently they spawn both in lake and rivers, however, not sure of success of lake spawning,.

I guess at the end of the day there is probably no perfect solution. Its interesting stuff, glad to be part of it.

Cheers
Mike