fish weight guesstimation

[hawghunter1744]

I was fishing with my cousin last weekend and we were having a fairly decent day. I was landing 2-2.5 pound fish ever hour or so. Each time I'd land one, my cousin would guess the fish to be much larger than it actually was. I figured he just didnt know what he was talking about so I didnt think much about it. Well today at work I've been bored and going through the old pages of the forum looking at peoples fish and I'm finding a TON of "6 lbers" that my scale would put at no bigger than 3.5. I'm 100% sure that my scale is correct because a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds 3 ounces and when I weighed a milk jug full of water it hit 8 pounds 6 ounces on my scale with the last 3 ounces being the weight of the jug. So having said all that, why is it that people always overestimate their fish??? It's not like we should be embarrassed about catching a 3.5 pound fish because by all means thats a really nice fish. Are peoples scales really that much off or is it just that the pictures don't do the fish justice?? I don't think that it's the whole "that picture doesn't do my fish justice"thing because I have loads of pictures of 3 pounders and I've never once thought that they looked bigger than they really were?? I just don't get how some of these average sized fish can really be that huge....

[Ellesar]

My guess is that its a number of things. I think some folks are competitive and exaggerate the weight almost subconciously. Some folks just want to be "better" than others. As for judging from a picture, I think that depends on the picture. There are lots of factors that go into judging a fish from a picture. One of the most important is scale. If there is nothing in the picture to provide scale, it can be hard to determine from the picture alone how big the fish is. When you talk about not having that problem with your pictures you aren't really taking into account that you actually saw the fish in real life, and were in the picture, so you know how the fishes size relates to the things in the picture. But looking at other peoples pictures, where you haven't seen the area, etc, can be misleading.

Thats my best guess. I know that some of the picutres I've taken don't do the fish justice, and some do.

[Jig Man]

There are also a bunch of cheap digital scales on the market.  I went through a bunch of them and couldn't find any that would give me a consistent reading.  That is why I own a Boga Grip now.

[roadwarrior]

When a picture is posted, I feel like taking a guy's word for it

if he says he weighed the fish. What difference does it make,

anyhow? Pictures can understate or overstate the actual size

of any fish.

On the other hand, if someone asks,"How much do you think

this weighs?", game on!

p.s. When flechero and I fished together at Lake Fork we

didn't weigh his big fish which he thought was a little shy

of 5 lbs. Later we weighed my much smaller five

and change! His fish was probably +/- 6 1/2 lbs.

8-)

[Paul Roberts]

Yeah, many anglers assign hopeful, or relative weights to their fish. I think the magazines create unreal expectations for most waters, and much of the country .

Here's a great piece on the subject

http://www.bigindianabass.com/big_indiana_bass/2006/12/all_fishermen_a.html

[flechero]

When a picture is posted, I feel like taking a guy's word for it

if he says he weighed the fish. What difference does it make,

anyhow? Pictures can understate or overstate the actual size

of any fish.

On the other hand, if someone asks,"How much do you think

this weighs?", game on!

p.s. When flechero and I fished together at Lake Fork we

didn't weigh his big fish which he thought was a little shy

of 5 lbs. Later we weighed my much smaller five

and change! His fish was probably +/- 6 1/2 lbs.

8-)

You make a good point... the fork fish (like many lakes I'm sure) are thicker and denser than Belton fish...  which only further complicates a guess from a picture.  I wasn't thinking that when I posted, I'm going to edit my other post so it doesn't come across as accusatory.

But I do know a number of people that always "guess" high!

[32251]

I just round the weight off when I tell folks about the fish I caught.

1lb rounds off to 3 lb.

2lb rounds off to 5 lb.....and so forth..:-)

[Clayton]

the whole pic thing does happen. Ginourmus fish become perch and perch become whales and stories grow exponentially. Best to just enjoy the stories and try to be honest yourself. DOnt worry so much about the other guy. Just remember to always catch one bigger than his!

;D

[mattm]

I think it is a combo of all three things.  Some scales are wrong, but you point out  three pound difference.  I doubt that.  Those instances the people are just exagerating the weight of their fish or it is a poor picture of the fish.  I know that my previous PB  of 6lbs 12oz almost always got the comment that fish has to be 8lbs.  It wasn't it was just a great picture of a nice fish.  On the other hand my new PB of 9lbs 2oz  photographed very poorly IMO.  

[daviscw]

Its alllllll in the camera!  

[TN basstracker]

I think it is a combo of all three things. Some scales are wrong, but you point out three pound difference. I doubt that. Those instances the people are just exagerating the weight of their fish or it is a poor picture of the fish. I know that my previous PB of 6lbs 12oz almost always got the comment that fish has to be 8lbs. It wasn't it was just a great picture of a nice fish. On the other hand my new PB of 9lbs 2oz photographed very poorly IMO.

Bingo!

[WRB]

There are several formula's kicking around to estimate the weight of largemouth bass based on length and girth measurements. Back in the 70's the only formula was the IGFA; length X girth X girth divided by 800 = pounds. The IGFA formula works OK for marlin and tuna, not very accurate for bass.

I was logging all my big bass during the late 60's to early 70's and noted the weight, length and girth of about 100 big bass. The measurements were made with the bass laying flat on a cooler that had a yard stick fastened to it and a piece of fishing line to wrap around the bass to measure the girth, then release the bass. I tried to using th IFGA formula and it was not close to actual weights. Modifing the formula to length X length X girth divided by 1200 = weight in pounds worked very well. Since that time I have used the L X L X G /1200 = lbs formula for over 30 years and it works out within 5%, depending on how the measurements are made. Measure the fish laying flat, mouth closed from the tip of the closed mouth to the center of the tail flattened. Girth is measured around the widest area with the dorsal fin flattened.

To evaluate a photo; use the fingers holding the bass as 3/4" for each finger width or 4 fingers slightly separated as 3 1/2" to ball park the fish being held length. If the bass is a Florida LMB the girth is usually about 90% of the length, a pre spawn bass could be nearly 95%.

For northern LMB use 75% of the length for girth, pre spawn being about 80%.

Example; 24" FLMB; 24 X 24 X 21.5 / 1200 =10.32 lbs.

24" NLMB; 24" X 24" X 18 / 1200 = 8.64 lbs.

WRB

[Newman12Fan]

From personal experience it can be the scale.  At first I had a $5 scale from Wal-Mart.  After weighing a 6.5 pounder, 6 pounder, and 4.5 pounder my buddy got a digital scale.  He then caught a fish the next night that weighed 4.5 pounds on the wal-mart scale, but 2.5 pounds on the digital scale.  Of course we both said the digital scale was crap because there was no way that fish was 2.5 pounds.  That night I did some test with hand weights and some other things with both scales and with a bathroom scale.  Sure enough the digital scale was correct.  The cheap one was off by about 2 pounds.  

So my perception of a fish wieght before we got the digital scale was way off.  In the picture of the "6 pounder" it was from about my shoulder to just about my belt, which is about 23 inches.  According to the measurement estimates out there, that would be about 6 pounds.  

So bottom line is we measure now with the digital, but I am still claiming the others were over 6 pounds.  Makes me feel better  ;D

[Newman12Fan]

Meant to add this to the last post.  I really don't care if it was 6.5 pounds or 4.5 pounds, it was a fun fish to catch, and it made my night

[SnowBass23]

I agree that there are several causes behind it.  As everyone has mentioned, it really is hard to tell just by looking at a picture what size a fish is.  Also, girth certainly plays into it, and there times when someone might be holding a particularly long, but thin fish from the side and as the viewers we just can't tell.  And then there are always the pics with a cell phone where the person is holding the fish as close to the camera as possible to distort the size (whether he means to do it or not  )

Personally, I generally take it with a grain of salt and simply marvel at the overall appearance of fish I see caught online.  Sure, you might say 6 lbs, and I think you might be rounding it up from 3 and 1/4   , but instead of getting bent out of shape I'm just going to enjoy the look of your catch.  Whether it was 3 or 6 doesn't affect me, and I can still gaze longingly at a healthy bass.

With that being said, on some other websites out there I have noticed particular users that undoubtedly catch a ton of beautiful, really nice sized fish.  The funny thing, is these guys never catch anything smaller than 3.5 and usually upwards of 6.  And it is amazing that sometimes you can tell the fish hasn't even hit maybe 16 or 18 inches at best.  So those particular people, (the few that will intentionally try to claim better than they actually got) I just ignore it and check out the fish, regardless of it's mythic weight!

[George Welcome]

When a picture is posted, I feel like taking a guy's word for it

if he says he weighed the fish. What difference does it make,

anyhow? Pictures can understate or overstate the actual size

of any fish.

On the other hand, if someone asks,"How much do you think

this weighs?", game on!

p.s. When flechero and I fished together at Lake Fork we

didn't weigh his big fish which he thought was a little shy

of 5 lbs. Later we weighed my much smaller five

and change! His fish was probably +/- 6 1/2 lbs.

8-)

Yea sure - 2 pound dink probably: it was a dink I tell you.

[nboucher]

I'll weigh a fish if it looks really big or otherwise unusual. Otherwise it's small, medium, or large and get it back in the water to go get bigger . . .

[b@ssman]

As said before a lot has to do with the picture (camera angle, holding the fish out, etc).  But most fishermen by nature tend to exaggerate a bit (all except me  ).  Just look at the Lunker Club in the back of Bassmaster Mag and you will see fish that are grossly over estimated.

[roadwarrior]

Fish Chris probaly has the best collection of weighed big fish pictures, but earthworm77 put my favorite in his avatar:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?action=viewprofile;username=3430232539263E233C6666510

Now, that bass was 10 something, but if you were estimating the weight, I think the guesses would be considerably higher!

8-)