Another way to weigh bass

[Swamp Girl]

In Maine, spring is a long time coming, so our bass spend half the year in a freezer. Just chillin' prolongs their lives and some live up to 20 years, as the colder water slows their metabolisms. I can see the great age of the old ones in their heads. Like this one:

 

 

The old ones have craggy faces. She is furrowed as a woman who's been smoking two packs a day for 40 years. Contrast the rugged mug above with the smooth face of the 2.5-pounder below, looking as pretty as a Disney princess:

 

 

Time etches their faces. Another tell-tale sign for weight is their lower jaws. Lip and grip an old gal and her jaw generally juts from her weight. One more craggy, ol' kisser, but without the jutting jaw:

 

 

Now let's see those time-furrowed faces, looking like the bent-backed, ol' gal at the end of the bar. 

[Jar11591]

This beat up, scarred, almost-22 incher comes to mind. You can tell shes lived a life. Shes in the top 5 longest bass I’ve ever taken from NY as well. At one point she was probably well over 6 pounds judging by her head size, but life’s rigors rendered her frail and weathered. 

[Swamp Girl]

One more furrowed:

 

 

Time took a chisel to her, huh?

 

 

3 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

This beat up, scarred, almost-22 incher comes to mind. You can tell shes lived a life. Shes in the top 5 longest bass I’ve ever taken from NY as well. At one point she was probably well over 6 pounds judging by her head size, but life’s rigors rendered her frail and weathered. 

 

Time's chisel gouged her from tip to tail. 

[PhishLI]

15 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Time etches their faces. Another tell-tale sign for weight is their lower jaws. Lip and grip an old gal and her jaw generally juts from her weight. One more craggy, ol' kisser, but without the jutting jaw:

Here's Bubba from Forrest Gump. 24" on the Rapala fish ruler, including the lip. This old northern girl had some shoulders.

[Swamp Girl]

Wow, @PhishLI!

[Bigassbass]

I've caught several big bass that were old, I wanted to give them something real to eat so the next time I went to the pond I gave all of the fish some fish food!

[gim]

I caught about a 19-20 inch smallmouth in late May that was the most beat up fish I've ever seen.  The spawn was going at the time.  Some of its fins and the tail had looked like it had gone through a meat grinder.  Not sure if this was just naturally a cause of digging in rocks/gravel or just old age, or both.

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@gimruis: The undead live! RUN!!!