Please "weigh" in

[drowningworm]

Although from the east coast, my buddies and I take an annual fishing trip up to Minnesota. We are a pretty competitive bunch. Twelve years ago, we made up two trophies, one for the biggest walleye and one for the biggest bass. Whoever wins the biggest fish during the week, gets to keep the trophy until the following year. For the walleye trophy, we also engrave the name of each year's winner and the lb of fish caught.

Anyway, to date, we have been using lbs instead of inches to determine the biggest walleye. We keep small digital scales in each boat for weighing and make sure they are tared the same. We generally catch and release unless we want to keep some smaller ones for eating.

Over the years, I have been thinking about changing from using lbs to inches to determine the winner. Arguments in support of using inches are: (1) the winner could be determined based on whether the walleye just ate a perch, (2) could result in less handling of the fish; (3) we need to measure anyway because of the new 20" rule. Arguments in favor of using a scale include: (1) the heavier fish may be more difficult to land, and (2) we have always used lbs and we just hate to change!!.

It seems to me that most people up North measure their fish and then estimate how much it weighs. We could do this but some in the group think this is misleading. For example, last year, I caught a 28 inch walleye that most people thought was over 7 lbs based on measurement. According to the scale, it was only 5.9. Of course, it probably would have been over 7 lbs if I caught it during the fall.

Anyway, we are leaving in a few weeks and wanted to be prepared to discuss this with the guys. What do you guys think is the better approach?? Am I missing any arguments on either side?

[Surface Tension]

First off I applaud you for letting those large fish go.

I changed from using lbs to inchs some time ago. I guess the main reason is lessing handling. Yes a 27" eye could weigh less then a 25" but if your fishing the same waters in your contest its likely you'll all be catching the same genetic strain of eyes, well thats unless the lake is stocked. Still you and your party care enough about selective harvest to let the big gals go so the reason of less handling would be easy for your group to switch to. Plus measuring by inchs is becoming universal. Something else to consider is hanging fish by the head puts strain on the spinal cord.

[Rost]

I agree with ST-

Measuring the length of a fish seems to be a much more accurate way to determine the maturity of a fish.

I've often wondered why they don't do this in most tournaments???

[drowningworm]

Surfacetension,

Thanks for the reply. If we switch to using inches, we may still want to put lbs on the trophy for consistency sake. Last year, the fishing reg. book had a conversion chart for inches to lbs. Do you know how accurate that is? Does it usually overestimate or underestimate lbs. Seems to me that it might overestimate by a pound or two based on our experience, which, by the way, isn't a bad thing for bragging purposes.

[Tonka Boy]

I'd like to disagree with inches. The reason being, as other stated above, that not all fish are equal. I've caught 27" eyes that weigh 5.75 pounds, and others almost 11 pounds. Now if I had a 27" eye that weighed almost 11 pounds while my buddy turns in a 5-6 pound, 27.25" eye and wins...well, someone's not going to be happy. Maybe track both but length shouldn't be as important. Just my 2 cents...

[BobT]

There are other advantages to length. As stated already, I would tend to believe that fish coming from a particular lake at a particular time of year will likely weight about the same at the same length, save a sick or injured specimen.

With this in mind, using length is a more accurate comparison because the fishes length can't be changed by the fish. When using a scale, how long does the fish have to settle down and stop squirming before the weight is considered valid? While a fish is flopping around the scale will undoubtedly be unstable. This means the fish will have to be kept out of the water even longer and if you intend to release...well.

The real problem is how to record it on your trophy if you should change the methodology. I would suggest seeing it as two records. One being when the weight was the measure and a new record where length is the measure.

Bob

[deepportage01]

I have to go with what you said. the most important thing is geting the fish back in the water asap.you can have a big fish measured/photo and put back in no time at all[under 30 sec]

[drowningworm]

Tonka,

You sure you are not one of my buddies? Sure sounds like something they would say!!! You do make a good point. However, I think the question is, what do you think is the bigger fish...the longer one or the fatter one? Would a longer fish put up a better fight than a heavier fish?

[chub]

Weigh em in the net. Subtract weight of net. Easy to do, you can do it before you even get the hook out.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Measure the length and girth.

[DTro]

Yep, lengthxgirth.

There are many more advantages to a dimensional measurement. My biggest one is that the each of your scales' tolerances could be enough to give the trophy to the wrong person, those things are good, but not as good as a ruler.

[Captain B.R.K]

I think switching over to a inches vs. pound thing would be a lot easier for people to do. I don't know about your situation, but when you have several boats and all of them have different measuring devices- how would you know if they are all weighting the same??

I know it is tough to switch processes but think it would help the fish out with less handling and stress.

[Tony Boshold]

When we are CPRing quality fish but want a weight, we will use a bag to contain the fish and not harm it. Just put the fish in the bag and use the bags handles to hang it on the scale. A tourney weigh bag works great and is very durable and reusable.

You can also find out how accurate the scales are using a known weighted object, like a wieght, in the bag to calibrate or at least find out how off or accurate the scale is.

For the panfish the bag works great. For tournament panfishing we use a digital kitchen scale that comes with a tray about 10-11" long. Perfect size for the pannies and extremely accurate. During winter, cold steel and wet lips don't mix, the bag or tray scales are ideal.

It seems to me the fish is stressed most during the "photo shoot" that usually ensues.

Hope this helps.