How big is my Small Mouth bass?

[Fred Allen]

Looking through my pictures from this past year this is the biggest fish I got. I caught it before I had a measure and a scale though. The lure is a Heddon Baby Torpedo. Anyone can tell me how big this fish is? I caught a smaller one when I had my measure and scale and he was 18 inch and 3.14 pounds. 

[Bluebasser86]

Really hard to guess with nothing more to scale than a 2.5" 3/8oz topwater. I would guess somewhere in the 18.5-19 inch range and 3.5-4 pounds.

[Dwight Hottle]

I'm guessing 3.5 lbs. 

[J Francho]

2.5 Oak leaves

 

3-4 lbs. is my guess.

[TnRiver46]

32 minutes ago, J Francho said:

2.5 Oak leaves

 

3-4 lbs. is my guess.

There’s a maple or two there also. Nice fish! 

[J Francho]

21 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

There’s a maple or two there also. Nice fish! 

That's for Canada, they use the metric system.

[Choporoz]

Do maple leaves make my fish look small?

[J Francho]

Only if you straight arm them

[JLBBass]

3.4321567 lbs?

 

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, JLBBass said:

3.4321567 lbs?

 

Is that Pi plus 1/3??

[roadwarrior]

[J Francho]

Just want to add, catching that slammer on a Tiny Torpedo must have been a blast.

[Fishlegs]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Is that Pi plus 1/3??

I think it’s Pi + 1/3 - 1 bite...before adding cool whip. ?

 

Kidding aside, nice fish! Two 3 lb+ smallies in 1 trip = well done.

[Columbia Craw]

Nice fish!

[Sphynx]

It appears as though the bait is angled, making it a bit shorter in comparison, and while we can approximate for those size differences in both height and length of the fish, girth is a significant factor to estimating weight and we haven't got a thing to go on there at this angle...that said I would estimate around a 3lb fish, assuming it is at a healthy weight for the apparent length, but you'd never get my hand on a good book to swear to it.

[Fred Allen]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

Just want to add, catching that slammer on a Tiny Torpedo must have been a blast.

It was crazy and my first real big fish. I got it on a zebco 33 with stock line. I tossed it out as far as I could by where I saw one jump. Soon as it hit the water he exploded on it. I mean the very instant the lure hit he bit on it.  I never caught a fish that fought enough for a "fight" and took that long to land. It was in September around 430pm and I happened to notice fish jumping on my way back to the car. 

 

Here is another picture on my talkbox.

 

 

[Sphynx]

2 hours ago, Fred Allen said:

It was crazy and my first real big fish. I got it on a zebco 33 with stock line. I tossed it out as far as I could by where I saw one jump. Soon as it hit the water he exploded on it. I mean the very instant the lure hit he bit on it.  I never caught a fish that fought enough for a "fight" and took that long to land. It was in September around 430pm and I happened to notice fish jumping on my way back to the car. 

 

Here is another picture on my talkbox.

 

 

That's a chunk, he'll go over 3 for sure, you can see the girth much better in this photo.

[John Diamond]

From that photo, I'd go 20 inches, 4 lbs.  Looks pretty similar to one I caught this summer, maybe a bit bigger.

[MassBass]

nice catch. I don't think its a 4 though. Solid 3 1/2 is my guess. The picture is what matters. Maybe pack a scale next time you are throwing that tiny torpedo. 

[BurrStone]

On 2/17/2021 at 9:04 PM, Fred Allen said:

It was crazy and my first real big fish. I got it on a zebco 33 with stock line.

That's the best part of the story right there. I caught my first decent bass with the same setup, back around 1975. Also, I have the same tackle box, 13.5" end to end ... just got back from the garage attempting to scale it out and I'm calling that an 18"er.

Edited March 12, 2021 by BurrStone
added content

[youngpky]

That must have been a crazy fight on the stock zebco setup. Glad you were able to get it into shore. Spincast is where it all begins...

[Swamp Girl]

If the fish you measured was 18", here are a couple 19" fish, as you can see from the tape. However, when it comes to weight, I look to the foreheads and both these fish have that weight-adding bulge. I don't carry a scale, but I'm guessing that these two 19-inchers are both four-pound bass.

 

 

Here's another 19" fish that probably weights four pounds, but has achieved that weight through a fullness in its body. My arm is not extended, so you can get a true sense of its length.

 

[TnRiver46]

21 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

If the fish you measured was 18", here are a couple 19" fish, as you can see from the tape. However, when it comes to weight, I look to the foreheads and both these fish have that weight-adding bulge. I don't carry a scale, but I'm guessing that these two 19-inchers are both four-pound bass.

 

 

Here's another 19" fish that probably weights four pounds, but has achieved that weight through a fullness in its body. My arm is not extended, so you can get a true sense of its length.

 

I’d say you’re about right! Down this way our 19” smallies aren’t so fat, usually 3-3.5 lbs. Every now and then we find a hefty one but mostly they are long and lean fighting machines. The northern smallies seem much fatter in general, well fed on perch, gobies, etc I guess

[Swamp Girl]

Dink's fish looks like a river fish and river fish work all day to contest current, making them wiry and tough and lean. The three fish I posted all came from the same lake, where they grow fat and lazy.

[MassBass]

That thing looks like a giant trevally! good point about river fish vs. Lake fish; but I would add that in really big lakes, sm swim a lot and can have a physique comparable to river fish.