Quote:
Originally posted by Dave Willis:
The only additional thought that comes to mind when I read Doug Hannon's thoughts (as posted by Bruce) was genetics. I looked back through his interview in In-Fisherman (Apr/May issue), and neither the author nor Doug really distinguished between northern largemouth bass and Florida largemouth bass, so I don't know what source of bass genetics he might have meant (I assume that most PB readers know that the true Florida largemouth bass are from southern Florida; even in northern Florida, they originally just had the northern genetics). Fisheries biologists know that the Florida genetics lead to fish that are heavier at a given length than the northern genetic fish. Now, Hannon could very well be right about the "obesity" factor adding to this difference. Sort of a double whammy?
Dave,

I've actually seen just the opposite in data with the norhern bass much heavier for the same length of Florida bass. I've also seen it with my own eyes with northern Michigan bass and Minnesota Boundary waters largemouths that I've mounted.

I'll see if I can find the article that was complete with charts etc. In that article upstate New York bass were the heaviest for their lengths. They just didn't get to the length the Florida's did.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.