No Scale... Length and girth accurate for spawning bass?

[dgkasper58]

I caught a large bass this Sunday from shore and did not have a scale with me.  She was tired and I wanted to get her back in the water ASAP so I did not look around for a scale.  I was wondering are the length to girth converters accurate for spawning fish?  I live in Il and was able to find a Florida bass weight calculator and think that it is TOO big for what I caught... 

 

I know it was over 5 for sure.  Just not sure if it was this big since she has such a big belly full of eggs.

 

[Brad in Texas]

Well, the length-to-weight charts we have here in Texas are very accurate, based on observational statistics collected on a large sample set. But, the one TPWD publishes only considers length to determine probable weight.

 

For a gravid female bass, the tummy full of eggs will expand its girth measurement giving you a pretty good number since it is based on two dimensions, not just one. 

 

Sounds like you caught a very nice fish!

 

Brad

[Choporoz]

Nice fish.  The calculator on this site (https://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html ) agrees with "Outdoor Life" - probably uses same formula.  As to whether the extra size and weight of a pre-spawn are roughly equivalent to size/weight ratio of other bass is way beyond me.  I don't recall seeing any disclaimers about spawn on these calculators.

Maybe eggs are really, really dense and heavy.