Man it has really been bothering me latley, everyone on the net and in Bassmaster saying there fish was way bigger than it was. I am sure most of us on this site can usally guess the weight relitivly close, but the people in some mags and sites oviously can't. Don't think I am writing this post because I catch a ton of huge fish because I don't. I am just really annoied when I open my bassmaster and see a "18lber" or the current worst one which is the bottom left corner which is "11.2" and I would say there is no way it's bigger than 8. I think I will send a pic of a 2lber into bassmaster and call it 10.00 and I am pretty sure they will print it. What is up w/ bassmaster dont they have any qualifications I see alot of fish that are not even close to 10 in the trophy page. And many sites excluding Calfishing people will post pics all the time of fish they say are mabey 5lbs and are not even 3lbs, and if you say something everyone flips out. I always weigh all my fish and if I dont I will just post the pic w/ out a weight. I am not aiming this post at anyone just had to get it off my mind since it has been bugging me.

Taylor-

i underestimate most fish by at least half a pound relative to their size. i caught a 3.4 in a tourney a while back that i thought for sure was only like 2 and a half. my dad is pretty much dead on with most fish and i don't know how he does it but he's usually within ounces. but ya overestimating on your fish just seems stupid. aim low with your estimations! usually makes you look not so dumb. lol.

Jake

Back in the day i used to go fish w/out a scale ,now i carry 2 one electronic and one spring ,to avoid looking like an ass if i post the size of my fish.otherwise i just post it as a "good fish" to avoid putting a size/weight on it .but i know what u mean Taylor when you say that.
:-) :7
brian

I am not really saying anything about afew oz's I am more concerend about the lbs people add. Anyhow I have not seen anyone on this site guilty of that. All I have is the 50lb rapala scale and I checked it against a 1lb weight and it is good. Another thing that bothers me is people who say they only take pic's of fish 10lb or better and then say they dont show there pic's to others and they live in like NY or something. Rob and Nico catch more Toads than anyothers I have seen and there not ashamed or a 5,6,7,8,9lber.

TM I know what you are saying. I have always been anoyed with people calling bass 10 lbs when they arent even close, Especialy before I caught one that big. It seemed like They were satisfied with just guesing "lying" it was 10lbs while I was working my ass off trying to catch my first one. If you ever look at the taxidermy bass on ebay they are the worst. Every 5lber is at least 10. I know it shouldnt bother me but it does.

Matt the 10lb thing does not bother me that much since I had alredy cought a few 10+ fish early on, so I was really not that concerened about it. Now that I have not cought one for 2 years when I do I think it will be like my first again :-) Anyhow it just bugs me when people lie about the weight of a fish big or small.

I weigh all mine and I too carry two scales just so I can be sure of the correct weight if/when I get my first double-digit Bass. I want to know it's correct myself.

Btw, I wouldn't trust a "1 lb weight" for testing a scale's accuracy. I weigh a single, 5 lb bag of sugar(the federal government regulates their weight) hung in a grocery store plastic bag and then I weight two, 5 lb bags to test for the heavier-end accuracy.

Dan

Dan I have tested mine on things 1oz to 30lbs it is right on.

what I dont get is.....what type of satisfaction deos it bring them when they now deep down they now there fish is not the size that they tell people.

Our family record is 8.5 pounds........and for me to come home one day saying that I broke the family record, but really just took pictures of a 6 pounder I just caught, this would not make me satisfied....even though people might believe me...it still doesnt conquer my personal goal of beating that record.

I just wonder what type of feeling they are going for when they lie like that.

BEN

Is to bring it to the grocery store. Go get two five pound jugs of water then walk over to the produce section. The jugs of water should weigh an exact weight (check online to see how much five gallons of water weigh). However, I place them on the produce scale just to make sure. Once I know the exact weight, I then place it in one of those flimsy plastic bags they give you (no added weight) and weigh it. I weigh several 5 gallon jugs to to account for potential variation. Last time I did this my scale was dead on. I need to do it again soon though just to make sure its still on.

And to play devils advocate, angles, sunlight, type of camera, zoom distance, and size of person are all very influential on how big a fish actually looks in a photo. So many times just cause a fish doesnt appear to weigh X amount, in reality it actually did. But I still agree, lots of people are way off the mark.