small mouth's weight?

[brad_snc]

hi, i've been showing people the picture of the 20" smallie i caught a few weeks ago on 4 lb test w/ ul and everyone asks the weight.  I don't think it is a true trophy fish unless you take the setup into consideration.  

so, i was wondering if anyone that has a lot of experience with weights of fish to help me with a figure (the online fishing calculators give such a wide variety of numbers) ... the pic of it is in my profile pic to the left (it was extremely meaty) and it is 20" long, 14" girth... i was thinking about 5 lbs

thank you

brad

[BASS fisherman]

I'd say between 4lb8oz, and 5lbs.

[Garnet]

Smallies are reel bad for being very long and super skinny.  This fish could be anywhere from 4 to 6.5 I always look at the width across the back.

Garnet

[roadwarrior]

The BassResource calculator comes up with 4.67. NY DNR estimates weights based on samples referenced by length only. The NY estimate for a 20" smallmouth is 3 lbs 14 oz, 22" represents a 5 lb 3 oz smallie. So, I suspect your bass was either side of 4 lbs.

Avid came up with this observation and  I agree with him:

Most "5 lb" bass that are not weighed actually weigh around 3 lbs. "Around 7 or 8 lbs" would probably weigh 5 lbs on scales.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Calculators are a general estimate. You can purchase a digital scale for not a lot of money and it will take the guess work out of the equation in the future.

[Dan:]

i would say probably 4.5

[BucketmouthAngler13]

i say 4-5lbs.

[Marty]

it is 20" long, 14" girth... i was thinking about 5 lbs

Any 20" smallie is a helluva fine fish, but I think 5# is a real stretch. My estimate would be from 3.5-4.25.

[CJ]

My PB smallmouth was 25",it weighed 4 lbs. 13 oz.It was one skinny fish.

[liquidsoap]

Someone weighed a smallie at our tourney and it was 22", only weighed 2.5lbs... Very skinny

It depends it can be a very fat fish and be up to 6lbs...

Or a skinny fish and be like 2-3lbs.