Chris great examples of how a fishery can be improved for producing larger bass. Your bass are now getting big enough that you should reconsider holding them differently for photos and release. Holding fat big bass solely by the jaw pulled out can break or damage the jaw structure. See this from the PB Archives:
Previous discussions of correct way to handle large bass
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=402580Examples of Bad Handling
http://www.laperlaranchresort.com/fishing1.htmlExamples of correctly holding big bass to reduce broken jaw problems
http://bigbluegill.com/forum/topics/correct-way-to-hold-larger-bass?commentId=2036984%3AComment%3A589403&xg_source=activity
Bob Lusk Says About Handling Trophy Fish.
Do Not, under any circumstances, hold a true trophy bass by its lower jaw without supporting its body with your other hand under the rear part of its stomach. By no means, with any bass of any size, ever pull back on the jaw of your fish, as it can become quickly fractured or dislocated. That's usually a death sentence to a big fish. If you don't believe me, ask those who run the ShareLunker program at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. Several great specimens were donated to that program last year to spawn and help stock public lakes around the state. But, those gorgeous girls didn't get past angler handling to do what they could do to help many other lakes. They died from bad handling.
From:
https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/hold-a-fish.html
