What Do You Consider A Dink In Terms Of Largemouth Bass?

[BammerBass]

Is there a certain length threshold or a pound threshold, such as under 18 inches, or under 3lbs? Of course there is no real universal answer for this, it is just really subjective to goals and desires of the individual. Me? Well as for me, anything under legal limit in my area (15 inch minimum to legally possess) I could consider a dink, but ill go with any largemouth under 12" to be a dink. It doesnt really matter to me what kind of fish it is,anything over 12" will put up a good fight, especially on light tackle. Again, this is really subjective and no set standard. Color me happy when I land a bass over 12" even though most places its not a "keeper" until it reaches 14-15".

On a side note, as far as eating goes, I agree with one of the posts in one of my other threads that generally the closer to the limit (on the legal side of course), the better eating largemouth are.

[WRB]

Any bass shorter than the legal limit, in California that is 12".

Tom

[tomustang]

Generally it's anything below the legal limit 12 or 15 depending on what lake here but for me it's anything under 3lb

[RSM789]

11.9999999999999 inches or less

[Sam]

Anything under 12-inches is a dink.

[Team9nine]

Another vote for sub 12," regardless of what the lake or state limit might be. That said, I don't complain about catching "dinks," because without them, you'd never catch big fish. Everybody's personal best bass lived life as a "dink" at some point 

 

-T9

[F14A-B]

About 80% of all Bass I catch in my grand state of Indiana, lol..

Seriously, I think up to 12" is probably a dink..

[BasshunterJGH]

Any bass shorter than the legal limit, in California that is 12".

Tom

X2.

[ww2farmer]

NYS limit is 12"...........less than 12" = dink IMHO. They are quite different from a limit of "rats" which are fish barely over 12" and will do you no good except donating your money to the tournament pot....some days...............but on others a 12.000000000001" fish is a gift from god. LOL

[Catt]

Legal limit here is 14"

[BooyahMan]

And yet another vote for 12 inches = dink. Around here at least that seems to be the cut-off for quantity of fish vs. quality of fish. If you fish light tackle and small hooks you'll catch up to 12 inches all day long, but you have to work for it a lot more if you want anything bigger than that. 

[Catch and Grease]

If it ain't a keeper its a dink!

[Weld's Largemouth]

Anything one year old and younger

[Paul Roberts]

As an angler, I'm apt to use 'dink' to describe anything that's smaller than the expectation of quality in that water, although I'm more apt to say "smalls" or "little ones". For the water's around my present home, that's fish under 11-12" -depending on how much they impress me or how much my ego needs a boost that day . "Quality bass" tend to be 15" or 16" up. In many of my waters, larger females tend to be 18 to 20". Anything past that is a rare fish.

 

Being primarily interested in how nature works though I'm more apt to use the term "immature" and in this light these are the bass still in the process of learning/"tuning to" their environment. Most of those won't be around by next year to be counted. In reality this may have little to do with size as bass can mature as small as 9" or 10" in some poor quality waters.

[BammerBass]

And of course this is for largemouth bass(applies for spotted, and smallmouth too). If it were for crappie for example, a 12 inch crappie is a pretty nice crappie.

I've caught no telling how many bass in the 10-13" inch range, its just crazy how much parity there is between say 12 inch largemouth bass and 12 inch crappie.

[wisconsin heat]

When I saw the topic I thought to myself, 11 inches. And its funny that everyone else is i agreement that up to twelve inches is a dink.

[AK-Jax86]

In my little fishing circle we consider anything under 3lbs a dink. We have some amazing fisheries up here in North FL. 4-5s are regular and the past few weeks we've been getting those 8lbers its been atleast 1 a week for past month or so by the 4 of us. (Bank Fishing)

When I fish with boaters, tournament guys, and i complain about these 1-2lb fish they tell me to "tighten up boy that's a tournament keeper right there" lol.

[everythingthatswims]

Most places I fish, nearly all of the bass are 11-13" and since I don't tournament fish I consider these to all be dinks, they stop being dinks once they reach 2lbs or so for me. In most of those lakes there are hardly any 2-4lb fish or the population that size is tiny, there is one lake about 20-30 acres that my friend and I pound every year during all seasons with all sorts of techniques, its either under 14" or over 5lbs, NOTHING in between!

[roadwarrior]

Statewide there is no minimum length for largemouth, smallmouth or Kentucky bass.

On specified reserviors minimums have been set. Pickwick for example has a 15"

minimum for smallmouth. Most tournaments specify 12" or 14" for largemouth and 

spots.

 

As others have already stated, I consider a dink anything less than the legal requirement

or in the case of non-restricted water, 12" or less. However, in this region most guys consider

a "decent bass " to be 3lbs or more. 

 

 

 

 

[ColdSVT]

NYS limit is 12"...........less than 12" = dink IMHO. They are quite different from a limit of "rats" which are fish barely over 12" and will do you no good except donating your money to the tournament pot....some days...............but on others a 12.000000000001" fish is a gift from god. LOL

We fish rhe same lakes lol

fished a tourny on honeoye last year...tons of rat bags lol.

ine dude pulled out a 3#er and we were all ooooh aaaah lol

i weighed a 9.3lb limit lol for 4th place

[K_Mac]

I agree with Paul that it depends on the water. On many of the lakes I fish there is a 16" or 18" limit. Even on those lakes the dink threshold is around 12" most days

[00 mod]

If you ever get your butt up to Erie I'll be dink dropping your five pounders before you get any pictures. Right Jeff?

 

 

Yea yea.  I am trying to drag hi butt to some awesome fishing grounds.  He is just VERY stubborn!  Huh flukie?

 

Jeff

[Montanaro]

Before opening the thread I thought 12"

[BassinLou]

My definition of a dink is anything under 1.5lbs.

[Raul]

Funny how us Southerners consider any fish under 2 pounds a dink  .