BillD - At least three things cause what you are describing. 1. the BG in the 1st post was likely a female. The BG in Bruce's post pictures were males. Males are often considered to get larger that females. Some disagree. 2. The accentuated nose and forehead shapes are basically sexual dimorphism features of the old really big males. These features usually start on males that are around 10" for the males and become more pronounced as the fish gets larger toward the 13"-14" length. 3. The platter shape tends to be mostly related to the genetic strain of the BG and to a lesser extent the wide body is part of the sexual dimorphism characters of old very big males again a progressive aging feature. Some strains or clines of BG are more streamlined or elliptical shaped and less round. Many BG do not get as big as 1.7 to 2.0 lbs or are not harvested, so these features are not commonly observed by most pondowners - anglers. The lack of these dimorphic features is another indication for those that are familiar with huge BG the "wall hanger" BG in the 1st post is not really as big as it was claimed to be because it lacked these characteristic body features of a true trophy BG in the 11"-14" category. For Ref: standard weight of a 11.0" BG is 1.2 lbs and std wt of a 14" BG is 2.69 lbs.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 01/03/15 07:27 PM.
