I wonder how well those two released bass recovered from the angling experience since they were not released immediately back into the water. I say this because the back ground in the pictures were not on the water locations. I think we overestimate the vitality or recovery ability of old, overweight fish after they have been jaw jerked and harassed to exhaustion and then placed back into a harsh survival of the fittest environment. I am not saying what you are doing is wrong. I am just questioning the ability of big old fish to successfully survive intense jaw jerking episodes by sometimes less than the best of anglers who do not place the fish's health as the utmost importance vs extended handling for science, deep hooked situations, slime removal, show and tell, etc.
An older thread about handling of fish to be released:
Handling fish
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=90341 
