The smaller sizes of bass can be mishandled and survived a lot better than the biggest 7 lb to 12 lb bass. The bigger the bass the more they are affected by stress.
Why are so few 90 - 100 year old people especially those tubby ones above 90-100RW not marathon runners? Age and stress affects all animals. The suggestions that I provided above were just ideas, things or examples to try and do to minimize stressors on the fish and increase chances of long term survival after release. When one spends lots of time, effort and expense growing trophy fish, and then drag them around on the ground and back twist their jaw pulled by 8-10 pound body weight before release, is this sensible? Remember fish live basically weightless lives until out of the water. Then mean old Mr. gravity is a player.
