Quick math shows an approx 50% weight gain in about 6 months. That's amazing. Have you stocked trout during Georgia summers or is that from other forage? It has a huge gut for it's length so your forage base is paying off.
No trout after early March. I could certainly stock trout but the local bait shop where I get them from stop stocking them in March and start offering them again in October. I'd have to hit up one of the trout hatcheries in North Georgia or Western North Carolina. I plan to do that in 2016 to see how they fair in the deep end of the pond in the warmer months. If nothing else they will be forage for the bass right quick in the Summer. A nice supplemental treat high in protein.
I did coppernose bluegill as main forage base at a ratio of 22 to 1 back in May 2014. I offer supplemental stockings of shiners here and there, probably an average of 4 dozen medium to large shiners tossed in per the months of June, July, August and September. Now in Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb I will offer supplemental feedings of trout on average 3 dozen per month. They can't possibly add to the growth of a bass of this size, but there are now plenty of minnows thriving in our pond as I introduced 2 dozen in August of this year. The shore offers some cover and they breed like rodents.
But the mainstay are bluegill. There are a crapton of them and the bass just eat them. But, throw in a shiner, shad or trout next to a bluegill and the bass will zero in on the shiner, shad or trout and ignore the bluegill.
When I landed this butterball before release I dropped another trout in its mouth headfirst, and the bass just gulped it down as I released it back into the water.
PS, maybe this bass has been dining on all the Camelot Bell fingerlings I stocked ...
