No offense taken Joe, I know you do very well bass fishing and I read all of your reports.
I make the linkage for a few reasons.
The most obvious to me is all tournaments and most bass fishermen use artificials and though the nice bass you caught were on artificials it is my opinion that the truly biggest bass in any water are solitary and need to be targeted specifically with huge large baits like a 9" fallfish or something equivalent. Few fishermen bother with that kind of preparation for any species.
That is how I target trophy walleye with my biggest in Ohio being 35", NY 30", Pa 33" and Ct 30 -- all on huge baits in water devoid of smaller walleye.
Or the Manitoba trip with Blaine where we had 12 Master Angler pike, the most of any group in Gods Lake that year, each fish over 43 1/2". The big pike were up on deep grass flats surrounded by deeper water and there were relatively few smaller pike. You catch a hundred small pike by fishing the shallow bays.
Or monster fluke. When I had my place in Montauk in the 70s before it was so crowded out there you could get trophy fluke by fishing deep holes and rocky areas especially around Labor Day when they were on the move to offshore locations. That is where and when the world record was caught and where I had a 16, 14, two 12s, and many above 10 and I have those pictures and may have put them in the gallery on the site a few years ago. You didn't catch any small fluke because you were not using a strip bait, you were using the entire filet of sea robin trimmed to a diamond shape or whole live bergalls and snapper blues.
There are state record brown trout swimming in at least three different state lakes and they don't feed on herring anymore, instead targeting much larger baits like stocker sized trout and kokanee. These fish don't get caught by trolling five colors.
So in my mind there is a difference in bass fishing too. Just like I hunt rack bucks instead of just going deer hunting I would hunt a trophy bass by avoiding the average bass and fish deeper with huge baits. I have inferred that this will work because it works on other species.
I think if you are a versatile sportsman who has mastered many of the hunting and fishing strategies in saltwater, freshwater and in the woods and fields then you can translate that into other strategies that you may not participate in much.
That is why I own a 3wt, 5wt, 7wt and 10wt flyrods plus multiple glass fly rods yet I am not a fly fisherman. I live 5 minutes from Candlewood and have fished it since 1984 and have graphed the entire lake knowing it like the back of my hand catching hundreds of quality smallies over the years but I am not a bass fisherman.
Last year on a local pond I had 30 trout to 4lbs and 20 bass with a half dozen over 20 inches until I ran out of bait but I was neither a trout fisherman or a bass fisherman that day. Just a guy out for the morning.
So I don't think it is necessary to be a fly fishing entomologist to be a knowledgeable trout fisherman nor a tournament bass fishermen to be knowledgeable about bass and their habits. I think a versatile sportsman who is competent in many different disciplines can translate that knowledge into other areas.

I don't think there are a lot of huge bass either, other than the picture I saw last week the only ones I see are right here on this site.
I like your thinking outside the box and your eel idea for largemouth makes sense to me. Lamprey eel juveniles are the number one primo bait for river smallies and walleye on the Delaware River and I would think it would work on the Ct. River or any river with lamprey spawning.
Lake Housatonic is full of those 6-9 inch american eels so freshwater bass see them in some of our fisheries.

Arlow that fish is a freakin horse! Bog fish?

While I'd love nothing more than to believe that there are 10-lb bass out there swimming around......I believe the majority of bass around here die of old age without ever reaching 8-lbs.

Some simply lack the genetics to ever be huge bass, but... just like people, some very small percentage live a lot longer than the average expected lifespan.

Even the picture Arlow put up is of an fatter than average bass. I don't know how long it is but I'd bet we'd all over guess the length of that bass. It is however thick in the shoulders and fat starting right at the tail. If they were all built like that, we'd be seeing more 9's.

There can be a few out there, no doubt, but in my opinion, it's a very very small number that most bass will never reach. Over 8-lbs, a bass can eat large meals so it's not going to be a matter of available food supply since they can feed on the largest of panfish, trout, other bass and anything that swims for that matter. It's going to come down to old age and genetics, two things that a fish has no control over.

Lake Saltonstall bass had the water quality, the forage base and genetics to grow huge bass and keep in mind that it was also closed to fishing for some 30+ years too and still...without fishing pressure and the possible negative genetic impacts of large bass harvest, it did not produce a bunch of huge bass when it was finally opened to fishing again. Some 8's even one 9's that I know of, but I never heard of a 10. If there was ever a place and time for it to happen in my lifetime....that was it.

I feel timing and fishing trout water that has the landlocked alewives in CT is your best way to get a trophy LM. I fish waters like that solo in CT from my canoe or crawdad with big jigs, big worms and wood wake-baits all summer long. For me quiet is key and working big fish areas very slow with little trolling motor noise and no electronics always helps I feel. Confidence is the most important part of HOG LM hunting so believing in the area your working and the baits on your line will always help your results.
I 100% agree with Joe about Bill Q Bait Tackle store in Seekonk, Mass and if you’re ever in that area of Mass you owe it to yourself to stop in to Bill shop. The # of HOG LM pictures along with the mounts on the walls is very impressive to say the least. Bill’s one of the better all around LM guys in the area and is one of the few guys that has landed a certified 10lb Mass LM. Back in 2002 Bill won the Mass gold pin for the biggest LM that year that went 10lbs even. That fish was caught from one of the Cape trout ponds on 8lb test floro and spider jig. The mount is on the wall at his store and is very impressive. Bill’s always willing to talk swim baits and all around LM fishing so spending a few hrs there can always improve your game.
I bought my 1st swim bait (12” MS Slammer Perch) from Bill many year and $$$ ago and my plan was to fish the great CT waters for pike. On my 1st trip I landed a 7lb2oz LM and a 14lb4oz pike and was hook ever since. My all-time top 3 PB are 9lbs2oz jig fish 1992, 9lb1oz sweet beaver fish 2006, 8lb15oz 10” worm fish 1992. My top 3 swim bait fish are 7lbs13 on a 3:16 I-UP trout pattern(CT LM),#2 was last years 7lb6oz MS Slammer LM and #3 was a 7lb2oz 2007 Woodtail LM. I did have a CT hog to the net last spring on a 8” Hudd that was as big if not bigger than any bass but one last head shake and she was gone.WTF. I relive that day and fish that same area and lake looking for that 2nd chance but bites like that around here is few and far between.
Here’s a look at my 2 HOG hunting boats and a few of my new toys that I bought as of late.








I hope the next CT 10LB LM is mine guys.