So you bring up a good point. Should a person use a different RW charts/formulas for Florida's and Northerns?
If using this data as a tool to see which way from STD the health is, continue using it for both if you can confirm DNA, but these formulas were never intended to depict accuracy above (or below) a certain percentage. There are visual cues that identify a fish that is "non-standard" and by this I mean (in the case of the KS bass) it cannot grow to X length without achieving Y weight. What it weighs at the time you have it in captivity is only relevant if you knew all the reasons it was a supposed 20% below the assumed STD weight. Chances are, this falls under what most Biologists will tell you is the area of unknowns that we may never understand because either they have never been researched or research provided no answer.
These fish in question are brutes for a pretty simple reason.. they had the right genetics, the best forage with the least amount of energy expended to consume it under the best conditions for growth. The argument will be that these are not optimum conditions considering water temp in some cases. I'm saying there are many, many other factors involved that we may never understand, but the truth remains that these fish are "Non-standard". There is no way to predict this because we follow conventional wisdom in fishery management every day and it does NOT produce this result with any regularity. I don't want to deflate any of your assessment, somebody needs to research this.
My views come from some pretty salty sources, such as one of our hatchery managers that was instrumental in the share-a-lunker program. His number 2 is one of Dr. Willis's shining students. These are the guys growing the 5-6lb male LMB (northerns) that I've mentioned before. The funny part of the share-a-lunker program that has been explained to me is that the quality of eggs a female of huge proportions develop, also produce less fry % per number of eggs and deformation in fry is much higher. KS sends the 10lb+ females down the road for the remainder of their life being chased by anglers in public impoundments.
I say keep up the research, there is information yet to be found that some day may better answer the questions.
Last edited by Snipe; 12/02/23 01:25 PM.
