What are your local ratios?

[Swamp Girl]

Just estimating here, but...

 

...for every 5 nineteen-inchers I catch, I catch 1 twenty-incher...

 

...and for every 5 twenty-inchers I catch, I catch 1 twenty-one-incher...

 

...and for every 2 twenty-one inchers I catch, I catch 1 twenty-two incher...

 

...and I have yet to catch a twenty-three incher. 

 

Length to weight key:

 

19-inchers are about 4 pounds.

 

20-inchers are about 5 pounds.

 

21-inchers edge up to 6 pounds.

 

22-inchers top 6 pounds. 

[TnRiver46]

For every 18”, I catch 20 11”

[Jar11591]

Around here, 18” fish are usually about 2lb, 19” might go 3lb, 20” 4-4.5lb and 21” will go about 4.5-5lb. 22” will put you right at 5lb usually. I have one 23.5” under my belt in NY. It is my domestic PB and weighed 6lb 3oz. The length to weight charts I see online rarely match what I see with my own scale and tape measure. The weights are usually significantly less than what the charts say. 
 

If I’m on my number one lake, I probably catch 1 20” fish per every 8-10 fish caught. 21” maybe every 12? There are so many 19-22” fish in this lake. The ratio of big fish:small fish is very high. 

[Swamp Girl]

16 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

18” fish are usually about 2lb

 

Regional differences, for sure. I once weighed three 16.5-inchers in a row and they all weighed about 2.5 pounds. 

[Swamp Girl]

@Jar11591

 

I found the trip report where I weighed three bass, which weren't 16.5", but 16". Here are the numbers:

 

Quote

The fish I caught were all 16 inches and I weighed three and they weighed 2.41, 2.43, and 2.49 pounds.

 

And here's one of those bass, so you can see the body shape that produced 2.4ish pounds:

 

[Zcoker]

Dang, you must fish with a calculator lol All I can say is when the 20 inchers are hitting in my neck of the woods, it’s one right after the other until the window closes. Same goes for most all other sizes, including the 23’s and 24’s, all of them can be back to back, which might suggest that they are pared off related to size, obviously! 

[Jar11591]

19 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@Jar11591

 

I found the trip report where I weighed three bass, which weren't 16.5", but 16". Here are the numbers:

 

 

And here's one of those bass, so you can see the body shape that produced 2.4ish pounds:

 

 

The regional differences in weight:length is really fascinating. Down in Mexico I was catching 5lb bass that were probably 18” and so stuffed full of tilapia that they looked like basketballs. 
 

And I just did some math. In 2023, I caught 1 fish over 19” per every 6.67 fish caught, and 1 fish over 20” per every 12.1 fish.

[Swamp Girl]

28 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

In 2023, I caught 1 fish over 19” per every 6.67 fish caught, and 1 fish over 20” per every 12.1 fish.

 

Whoa! Both those ratios are better than what I enjoy in Maine, where I might catch one that's 19" for every twenty bass I catch.

 

28 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Down in Mexico I was catching 5lb bass that were probably 18” and so stuffed full of tilapia that they looked like basketballs. 

 

I laughed just imaging such bulging bass! And I thought my 18-inchers were fatties. 

 

44 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

Dang, you must fish with a calculator lol All I can say is when the 20 inchers are hitting in my neck of the woods, it’s one right after the other until the window closes. Same goes for most all other sizes, including the 23’s and 24’s, all of them can be back to back, which might suggest that they are pared off related to size, obviously! 

 

You are a highly skilled angler. I've watched videos of other bassheads in the Everglades and they're not catching 23 and 24" bass back-to-back. As far as a calculator, I'm just ball parking the numbers.

[WRB]

Length X Length X Girth divided by 1200= weight in pounds.

Length measure mouth closed to end of tail.

Girth measured around the widest area dorsal fin down

Average body LMB girth is about 75% of Length, heavy body about 90% of the length, girth matters.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

12 minutes ago, WRB said:

girth matters

 

When the King of Girthy Bass says this, only a fool wouldn't listen.

[MIbassyaker]

57 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

And I just did some math. In 2023, I caught 1 fish over 19” per every 6.67 fish caught, and 1 fish over 20” per every 12.1 fish.

 

 Good lord, Jar!  A 19" is probably about once out of every 75-100 bass caught for me. 

 

Granted, I do fish some places that just have a lot of dinks. But even if I were to take my top 5 waters for biggest average size, I wouldn't come close to a 19" every 7 fish. Maybe one in 20 or 30.

 

I have the numbers to calculate ratios like this at home. I'll take a look at it tonight.

[Zcoker]

24 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

 

You are a highly skilled angler. I've watched videos of other bassheads in the Everglades and they're not catching 23 and 24" bass back-to-back. As far as a calculator, I'm just ball parking the numbers.

 

Just what I've noticed. These two 24's were pretty close to back to back. Happens a lot out there. The sizes being near the same is a mystery. Just last weekend almost all my fish were in the 20's. Goes the other way, too. All the fish can be 15's. 

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Again, the YouTubers who record their Everglades trips aren't catching them back-to-back like you. 

 

I caught two 19-inchers back-to-back last September and was elated. Of course, I'm about as far north as one can catch bass in the lower 48 and you're about as far south, meaning your bass eat 12 months a year and mine eat seven-to-eight months a year.

 

16 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

Just last weekend almost all my fish were in the 20's.

 

I haven't even seen ^this^ in any YouTube videos, which speaks again to your angling skill. 

[MIbassyaker]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

For every 18”, I catch 20 11”

[Choporoz]

As a kayak tournament angler, I sort of enjoy the increased discussion or focus on length.  Not trying to criticize or critique anyone.... but maybe standardize a little for comparative conversations.   If each bass on a measuring board is measured with mouth closed and mouth up against the 'fence', we'll be closer to apples to apples talks

49 minutes ago, WRB said:

Length measure mouth closed to end of tail.

 

26 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

 

 

[Zcoker]

Just now, ol'crickety said:

Again, the YouTubers who record their Everglades trips aren't catching them back-to-back like you. 

 

I caught two 19-inchers back-to-back last September and was elated. Of course, I'm about as far north as one can catch bass in the lower 48 and you're about as far south, meaning your bass eat 12 months a year and mine eat seven-to-eight months a year.

 

 

I haven't even seen ^this^ in any YouTube videos, which speaks again to your angling skill. 

 

I've had many experiences with bass that I've never seen in YouTube videos, either, and is one of the reasons why I always raise an eyebrow to challenge set beliefs. For one, when I catch a big bass in a certain spot, I always keep fishing that exact same spot with the exact same bait and usually (more often than not) catch another big bass practically the exact same size. They say that big bass are solitary creatures lol. No way. They hang together. They pare off related to size. Maybe it's a food thing. Maybe because of them all being the same size they won't eat each other lol 

[Swamp Girl]

The only video I've seen that's comparable to your experiences, Zcoker, is the one below, where Kristine boats two DDs in a day, but that's an extraordinary day for her:

 

 

4 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

For one, when I catch a big bass in a certain spot, I always keep fishing that exact same spot with the exact same bait and usually (more often than not) catch another big bass practically the exact same size.

 

I hope I can remember to do the same. So many things to remember from what I read at BR.

[TnRiver46]

17 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

As a kayak tournament angler, I sort of enjoy the increased discussion or focus on length.  Not trying to criticize or critique anyone.... but maybe standardize a little for comparative conversations.   If each bass on a measuring board is measured with mouth closed and mouth up against the 'fence', we'll be closer to apples to apples talks

 

 

I want to fish kayak tourneys but I can’t make them hold still with mouth closed and my phone is always fogged over haha. And that’s in a boat where I can walk around 

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I want to fish kayak tourneys but I can’t make them hold still with mouth closed and my phone is always fogged over haha. And that’s in a boat where I can walk around 

 

I hear ya. I've had bass that won't lie still on a bump board and I don't want them getting hurt flopping around my canoe, so I lip and grip them instead. And anyone who's read my trip reports has seen that my camera gets foggy some mornings. 

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I hear ya. I've had bass that won't lie still on a bump board and I don't want them getting hurt flopping around my canoe, so I lip and grip them instead. And anyone who's read my trip reports that has seen that my camera gets foggy some mornings. 

If it ain’t one thing it’s another. The reason I like the idea of kayak tourney is keepers are smaller. Boat tourneys I would have to get 5 over 18”, don’t know if ive ever done that and I sure couldn’t keep them alive. Kayak accepts 12” keepers since you let them go. I’ve been known to catch some 13” bass now……

[Zcoker]

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

The only video I've seen that's comparable to your experiences, Zcoker, is the one below, where Kristine boats two DDs in a day, but that's an extraordinary day for her:

 

 

 

I hope I can remember to do the same. So many things to remember from what I read at BR.

 

Yeah, that was at Headwaters. Lotta screaming going on there lol And rightly so! I know the exact spot she caught them at. I think she live scoped them. Easy to pick out. Regardless, that place is packed full of BIG bass! I've seen a 13 on a 6" worm. I don't go there often but when I do, I usually do pretty good but it's fading a bit lately, just like the Stick Marsh did. Folks travel from all over the world to fish that place--in droves! Hopefully it holds steady. The 14 below was caught not to far from there. Whole area is just busting with big bass! Probably why everyone is flocking there. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Susky River Rat]

For every fish I catch it takes me 3 hours to catch it 😂 kidding well some days it’s true. It honestly depends on the day and how the fish are schooled in the river.

[Swamp Girl]

10 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

If it ain’t one thing it’s another.

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

However, Tn, you're not made for fishing kayak tourneys. You're a social guy, made to fish with your friends and put them on 20"-plus smallies.

 

My lmbs are wild in the boat because I winch them in ASAP to keep them out of the weeds. If I had more water to play them, they wouldn't be so bonkers when they meet me.

 

6 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

Folks travel from all over the world to fish that place--in droves!

 

You had me hooked until ^this." I don't do droves. If there's one other canoe/kayak on a bog, I feel crowded.

 

I'm like Huck Finn, who closed his book with these words, "But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there before."

 

I'd find the part of the Everglades without people, which I figure would be most of it, right?

[Zcoker]

28 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I want to fish kayak tourneys but I can’t make them hold still with mouth closed and my phone is always fogged over haha. And that’s in a boat where I can walk around 

A firm hand slowly eased off with a nice pat while on the board, like petting a cat, they'll settle down. Even the biggun's will let ya take a hands free glamor shot. Just have the net in place and ready, just in case! 

[GReb]

Wait, bass grow over 14”?