I fish with Thomas all of the time, one of my good friends and yeah he slays the big LMB. If you base your opinions off one or two people in a state you could say that every state has giant bass, consider the bass population as a whole and not based off one anglers or even 10 anglers catches. I’ve been fishing Florida for a long tike and a BIG bass for Florida to be honest is like 8lbs. To catch a 10lber is so rare you’re lucky to have it happen once a year if you GRIND and even then you have to find the right lake to produce a fish of this size, it is NOT common at all.
Regardless of that I think the MAIN reason Florida has such a large handicap compared to these other places is obvious, it has to do with forage species. California and Texas both are stocked with the best Giant bass grower there is, trout. All of the places with a lesser handicap pretty much are. As for the ones that have trout and don’t grow giant it’s due to other factors unrelated to forage species. Trout stocking and trout populations is what sets these places apart from Florida and If anyone were to analyze the actual numbers of big bass caught it would be apparent in just how much of a difference this makes.. Bass in Florida have the genetics to grow giant and the environment but they just don’t have the proper food supply. On massive lakes like okechobee and others yes they do, but most of the waters you won’t find a bass over 10lbs. They just don’t have that supply of giant forage species.