We just figured out (mostly) what the genetics of most of our lakes are with regards to largemouth bass. There's actually 3 different lineages of largemouth bass in Alabama (
Read article here). One of the things most fishery biologists are concerned with across the southeast in managing native biodiversity. For years everything was just a bass and fast forward to now and we have 19 species of black bass (
read paper here). Most people are aware of the largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass, but those are just the most widely distributed and popular.
Even among the largemouth bass, given the unique lineages mentioned above, moving things around has led to large-scale hybridization. This is not a good thing and it disrupts co-adapted gene complexes along with many other negative consequences. The introduction of FL bass alleles has been tried in several AL lakes with varying degrees of success. Many pond owners do this on a small scale with "Tiger Bass", created by crossing FL bass with northern LMB. This creates an F1 hybrid that has the best of both parent species (grow fast, aggressive, etc). However, to maintain that success for the long term, routine stocking is needed. Sometimes this is economically unfeasible as it is pretty intensive, especially on a reservoir-scale.
If you just want big fish and that's all you care about, I'm not sure you care. If you are a sportsman and care about the native biodiversity we have, stocking a different species is not the answer. By the way, these fish that are stocked inevitably make their way into the river systems and hybridize with all the native bass there. It ultimately leads to the homogenization of bass diversity, which I can't imagine someone that truly understands it would want to happen. World class smallmouth, largemouth, and other native fisheries have been ruined by the introduction of Alabama Bass. The goal was bigger, more aggressive fish. What they have got is small, stunted populations of fish that are not adapted to grow in places like NC and VA.
There is so much that goes into growing big bass, just like with deer, genetics is only one piece of the puzzle. Behavior, habitat, diet, temperature, etc. all are driving factors that are often ignored.
