Three Decent Fish Via Crankin' & Windin'

[AK-Jax86]

Have to admit I am enjoying this back and forth and between you two and the pictures are an added bonus! Always like to see pics of nice quality fish... And I am learning a few things that I have always wondered from this mini debate

[Dead River]

that is a very nice northern strain bass that he posted. I have never caught one, I've only caught our native fx intergrades and the f1 hybrids. I'm down to catch a pure florida strain at some point

[Mainebass1984]

 During the feed up before the spawn most of all the energy is converted in to the development of the eggs, very little is converted in to growth. Besides needing energy for egg development, energy is still needed to maintain homeostasis, swim, feed, etc. I have no doubt that fish could ingest 8 ounces of feed in the month prior to spawn but not all the feed is directly converted into weight gain of the fish. Metabolism is determined by external environmental conditions not the strain.

 

Everyone has opinions. Look into the cold hard facts. There have been many studies done on bass growth rates, metabolism, weight gain prior to and directly following the spawn.

[Dead River]

 During the feed up before the spawn most of all the energy is converted in to the development of the eggs, very little is converted in to growth. Besides needing energy for egg development, energy is still needed to maintain homeostasis, swim, feed, etc. I have no doubt that fish could ingest 8 ounces of feed in the month prior to spawn but not all the feed is directly converted into weight gain of the fish. Metabolism is determined by external environmental conditions not the strain.

 

Everyone has opinions. Look into the cold hard facts. There have been many studies done on bass growth rates, metabolism, weight gain prior to and directly following the spawn.

 

who said strain had anything to do with metabolism, I was talking purely about geography and your fish having a shorter growing season.

 

speaking of external factors, when bass have more readily available easy meals they tend to be fatter than bass that have to work harder for food. a bass is an energy conservant predator that will maximize what it eats and minimize the effort it takes to get it.

 

fyi, that lake that produced all the fish on this thread except one is inundated with stunted crappie. how can you not tell that many of those bass are fat and not all of them are gravid. a bass can carry weight in a lot of diff locations besides its belly, in the shoulders, around the tail and anal fin area, and of course in the belly. you can have a bass with a horse head, a 10 pound head and it can weigh 7 pounds, or you can have a 21" total length fish like mine that weighed 7 lbs, we're talking almost square fish here, it's about productivity. I once saw a photo of a 22.5"  bass that weighed 11 lbs.

 

I think your views are biased because you live/fish in a geographically limited area. that's just my opinion.

 

if you can't see the distinction in the photos of the fish I have posted, I don't know what else I can do for you.

[Dead River]

and we're not even talking about growth immediately, we're talking about being full of forage, what about the February 10 lb 10 oz bass I posted that had what looked to be a 3/4 lb channel cat in its throat. and she hit my deep diver after that.

 

a bass could gain a pound in a month easily, a bass could be a pound heavier at the end of a good day or gorging itself on shad or sunfish

 

big bass could eat goldfish over 2 lbs and beyond with no problem.

 

I digress

[Dead River]

here are a couple of fat bass that are not gravid, one was caught in October, one was caught after the spawn

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnQb2qKomPg

 

notice the belly on this fish

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedP9P1L4pw

[Dead River]

here's another 5 lb  + class fish caught from a small public lake choked with threadfin shad, notice how portly

 

more shad lake bass, outgrowing their heads

[Mainebass1984]

LOL.

This is too much.  No doubt you have some nice pics and must be a good fisherman. I would suggest doing some research into simple bass biology. Look at the science, the data the evidence. Just because I live in New England now doesn't mean I have no clue about southern largemouth. I worked for Florida Fish and Wildlife for awhile and handled an incredible amount of bass and their data. Your entitled to your opinion though. You know what they say about opinions... Look at the research and scientific evidence. Ask your regional fisheries biologist for his opinion.

 

Keep on posting pics man. I could do the same.

[AK-Jax86]

Don't know who posted about lengths and weight of fish I have lost track lol. But here in Jacksonville last year from June to December I have caught 9 fish 21", 7 fish 22" (one was 22.5), 1 fish 23", and 1 fish that was 24".

By the pure length factor I should have 18 double digit bass? But speaking to dead Rivers point it depends on how much food is available in that particular spot. The 24" bass weighed 7lbs and was long and thin that was in July. In December I caught one that was 6lb 11oz that had the body of a 10lb and was 22". Then the next day I caught a 7lb 7oz that went 23" and was not nearly as fat as the 6, belly wise.

Also had another fish that was 22", I didn't weigh it cuz took a long time to get the hook out and she was bleeding heavily, that fish had the head and mouth of a 10lb but lived in a small apartment complex pond oppose to the others that were caught in bigger lakes.

So my scientific explanation would suggest that all fish are different depending on the body of water they live, the abundance of food, and other predators or lack there of.

Just my input to this little debate

[Dead River]

Don't know who posted about lengths and weight of fish I have lost track lol. But here in Jacksonville last year from June to December I have caught 9 fish 21", 7 fish 22" (one was 22.5), 1 fish 23", and 1 fish that was 24".

By the pure length factor I should have 18 double digit bass? But speaking to dead Rivers point it depends on how much food is available in that particular spot. The 24" bass weighed 7lbs and was long and thin that was in July. In December I caught one that was 6lb 11oz that had the body of a 10lb and was 22". Then the next day I caught a 7lb 7oz that went 23" and was not nearly as fat as the 6, belly wise.

Also had another fish that was 22", I didn't weigh it cuz took a long time to get the hook out and she was bleeding heavily, that fish had the head and mouth of a 10lb but lived in a small apartment complex pond oppose to the others that were caught in bigger lakes.

So my scientific explanation would suggest that all fish are different depending on the body of water they live, the abundance of food, and other predators or lack there of.

Just my input to this little debate

 

unless productivity is really off the chain I think a bass has to get to the 25" mark to be a double digit, my first double digits were 26" long, this is not a total length or fork length measurement just the longest part of the tail open naturally. in cased where productivity is good you'll have fish like my 10-8 f1 which was a short fish with a total length of 24", meaning it's under 24" in comparison to how I measured my first double digits. You generally need 25x19 to make a double digit in my opinion unless of course you have great conditions and productivity.

[Dead River]

So my scientific explanation would suggest that all fish are different depending on the body of water they live, the abundance of food, and other predators or lack there of.

 

 

yes, this is what this thread is all about!  compare the dimensions of the two reigning world record bass and you take my meaning entirely.

[AK-Jax86]

yes, this is what this thread is all about! compare the dimensions of the two reigning world record bass and you take my meaning entirely.

Yea man I agree with your theories as well.

I mean science is "factual" and all but how would someone explain someone like Lebron James? Or how do you explain other athletes in the NBA or NFL... Adrian Peterson I bet science can't explain what he did! Got a surgery that regular people can not even do their normal daily activities at their work place like walk and sit a a desk. This guy comes back less than a year later and missed the NFL single season rushing record by 9yds or whatever it was. But I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for that now that it happened eventhough when he got the injury all science pointed to his career was over.

[Dwight Hottle]

Dead River for your info mainebass 1984 is a biologist. Give him a little credit.

[AssassinAngling]

4 lbs of shad in a day ?  2 lbs in a month ? I just don't think that it is biologically possible. Any science behind these claims ?

Let's just say if a bass ate 1 pound of shad a day it would consume about 900 calories a day 6300 calories a week and 25200 calories in a month. Even if the bass burned half of those calories it ate it would gain about 4 pounds in a month. (3000 calories in a pound) If this were biologically possible their would tons of fish in the 8-10# range in most lakes. 

[Dead River]

Dead River for your info mainebass 1984 is a biologist. Give him a little credit.

 

I know quite a few of those biologists guys.

 

as for weight calculators, they're useful when you leave the scale at home but they were extremely inaccurate for the fish we were catching out of the female only trophy lake. I used regular lengths as opposed to the total length measurements and the formulas always undershot the actual weights of the fish we landed, sometimes quite handsomely. In my opinion the F1 fish are heavier for their size than the Fxs, and that's not my mantra originally. a big a-rig proponent on a local lake touted that about the fish at Bear Creek, call it hybrid vigor but there's something to it in my opinion. I do however believe they are inferior because they don't get as long, don't get as big, live as long, and produce inferior offspring. last I heard the record for an f1 was 16 lbs which ain't too shabby

[Dead River]

Let's just say if a bass ate 1 pound of shad a day it would consume about 900 calories a day 6300 calories a week and 25200 calories in a month. Even if the bass burned half of those calories it ate it would gain about 4 pounds in a month. (3000 calories in a pound) If this were biologically possible their would tons of fish in the 8-10# range in most lakes. 

 

my original point was that a bass could gain a pound of weight by virtue of putting on roe for the spawn and feeding up during the pre spawn. I don't think seeing inflated fish in February, march, april, and may is a very farfetched concept. someone here said a bass can put on 10% of its body weight in roe, do the arithmetic on a 5 lber and see how much else it would need to eat to go with that roe to be that heavy. it's not farfetched at all.

[AssassinAngling]

my original point was that a bass could gain a pound of weight by virtue of putting on roe for the spawn and feeding up during the pre spawn. I don't think seeing inflated fish in February, march, april, and may is a very farfetched concept. someone here said a bass can put on 10% of its body weight in roe, do the arithmetic on a 5 lber and see how much else it would need to eat to go with that roe to be that heavy. it's not farfetched at all.

It would need to eat 1500 more calories then it burned to gain 1 pound with the %10 body weight of row. So it doesn't seem to farfetched when you look at it this way.

[Dead River]

It would need to eat 1500 more calories then it burned to gain 1 pound with the %10 body weight of row. So it doesn't seem to farfetched when you look at it this way.

 

I think a 5 lb bass could gain 8 oz in a month from eating and also gain 8 oz in roe. I think a 5 lb bass could eat an 8 oz meal or larger with relative ease and instantaneously be heavier.