Jason, those sound like awesome results to me! Keep up the good work.
I have never fished in a pond with SMB as the only top predator. However, in the ponds and lakes I have fished with LMB and SMB, we have never caught a ridiculously "bulky" SMB. We do catch a few LMB like that, even outside of the spawn.
I do not know if the physiology of LMB and SMB are different, or if the SMB cannot "thrive" to that same degree in mixed bass ponds.
I have caught strong, healthy SMB in ponds where we also were catching some chunk LMB. We have also caught healthy SMB in ponds where we were catching skinny LMB.
Question for people that record relative weights in their mixed bass ponds: Is the RW variance around the mean much higher for your LMB compared to your SMB?
I believe that has been my "non-scientific" personal observation.
