Many quarries in the Fla/Ga area have the 2 most important conditions need for high productivity. The quarries are either limestone and or phosphate. If you put those 2 together , which occurs in this area a lot you get very high productivity. Some studies show 2000 to 3000 lbs of fish per acre capacity. Don't know if this is the case on the described lake.
Eric, I just don't know but the same you suggested has occurred to me as a possibility. In what I have read, the water is ultra clear and the BG in the lake easily spooked. I wouldn't think it would harm anything though to be very fertile provided it didn't cause DO issues. If there is groundwater flow, highly fertile water could still remain pretty clear and cool if the volume exchanges every few days or so. This water is certainly very special but the vastly reduced BG reproduction and moderated temperature may be two very important pieces to its puzzle.
Also one of the main reasons is - the reason is basically why we are not all as big as Labron James and a few other very tall basketball people.
Bill, yes but even a 6 foot tall man can weigh 500 lbs. He has to eat a lot and not expend too much energy for it. He'll keep growing as long as there are surplus calories and he lives. Mortality probably isn't an insignificant factor in BG ultimate size. Even so, a 500 lb 6 footer is an outlier not much less rare than a Labron James. Most people just won't eat that much. Probably BG have differing propensities to eating heavily as well.
It seems to me that it is difficult to know how big a typical pond owner's BG might get in the BOW that grew the world records. I question whether the run of the mill BG are terribly impaired genetically. It seems very reasonable that they might attain 2 lbs and 12"+ assuming the predation scenario that existed through the periods when the record fish were caught. Certainly, there are genetic outliers but we really don't know and can't quantify just how they are distributed about some mean value except by a case by case (BOW by BOW) basis.
To be honest, when I hold a 9" BG in my hand I am grinning from ear to ear and in no way disappointed in him. Greater than 10" is real treat. Though I have fished extensively for BG, I've only caught one of 12". I was just blown away by its dimensions and a lot younger at the time. I wish now I had released him. 12" BG are rare but I think they could be more common as we learn more.
To be sure, growing a 12" bluegill is more complicated than just controlled reproduction as you discovered with the male-only BOW. Even when there is little competition it matters how young they are when sexed and they have to continue living after reaching the size they normally die at.
