I have very fast growing feed trained largemouths in one of my ponds, so fast in fact, that their fins and heads look to small for their bodies. The jury is still out, but I'm convinced they don't live as long as their wild counterparts, and probably will never exceed 6 or more pounds. However with the feed trained fish there may be another factor other than just fast growth. There is some conjecture that feed trained largemouth bass are missing something in thier diet (no diet out there specifically for largemouth bass yet), and they tend to get fatty livers from the feed vs. wild natural feed.

I know I lose a few every winter for no apparent reason and one study I saw said that may be due to the diet. They also seem more delicate in winter and can't take much handling.

Some believe bass lifespan is related to caloric consumption metabolism. They are in a sense only alotted a fixed number of calories in their lives and more calories they consume the earlier they will burn out. Another analogie is with a candle. There is only so much wax and the faster the candle burns the faster it will run out of wax.

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