There is a TPWD study following LMB for 16 years. Growth slows with age. First few years are fast then slowing.
You know I just saw this documentary on Dotty and realized this girl put on a 1lb+ per year in her old age! Wow That is impressive....So for some reason this bass kept growing right up until she died...In 2003, she weighed in at 21.11 and in 2006 25lb 1oz,
http://www.espn.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?page=world_record_bass_dies "Dickerson was the first to realize the dream in 2003, and he thought the record was officially broken when he picked her off a spawning bed. He said the three friends immediately weighed Dottie at around 23 pounds, but it took the Game and Fish three hours to get to the lake to verify it as a record. By that time, they said, it was stressed and had lost a lot of its weight.
She officially weighed 21 pounds, 11 ounces, which still holds as the fourth largest largemouth bass ever recorded. That's when they noticed the spot on the gill and declared the race for "Dottie" and the record officially on.
They didn't pull her in again until 2006 when they again spotted her on a spawning bed and Weakley went to work. He eventually was able to set the hook, but when he got her to the boat, they noticed she had been foul hooked (not hooked in the mouth). Against his friends' wishes, Weakley decided not to try and make the record official with the Game and Fish.
Before releasing her, they weighed Dottie at 25 pounds, 1 ounce, shattering the record, took some photos. Weakley said he wasn't prepared for the scrutiny that followed."
