Q. Here’s a question concerning largemouth bass length and body weight. “Are there any guidelines or national standards on a bass’s body length and weight? What should a healthy 16-inch bass weigh, for instance?
Bill: Well, the AFS, or American Fisheries Society, has removed some of the guesswork by setting national standards for the “average” weight of an “average” bass in an “average” body of water. These averages can vary some according to the growing season, water quality, type of forage and other factors. For example, relative weights may be higher in Alabama than, say, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Minnesota. However, a general standard, a baseline for monitoring fish, would look like this:
Target Weights by Length Length Weight
8 inches 5 oz.
9 inches 7 oz.
10 inches 9 oz.
11 inches 11 oz.
12 inches 14 oz.
13 inches 1 lb., 3 oz.
14 inches 1 lb., 7 oz.
15 inches 1 lb., 13 oz.
16 inches 2 lb., 4 oz.
17 inches 2 lb., 12 oz.
18 inches 3 lb., 4 oz.
19 inches 3 lb., 14 oz.
20 inches 4 lb., 9 oz.
21 inches 5 lb., 6 oz.
22 inches 6 lb., 4 oz.
23 inches 7 lb., 3 oz.
24 inches 8 lb., 4 oz.
If I had pinched the tail it might be a little longer.
Acording to this, 20 inches 4 lb., 9 oz. I gues my bass was between 4 lb 9 oz and 5 lb
The sclae I used said 5 3/4 lbs.
But I was told theres no way it could be that weight.
Oh Well.
__________________
What ever you do be carefull, and
remember to use ear plugs
The Hearing you save will Be Yours
the best way to get an accurate weight on a fish is to weigh it, "paper scales" would have to be adjusted for region, forage, time of year, and type of body of water...
i have caught 20" fish that weighed 3# and i've caught them that weigh over six...just to many varibles to say a 20" fish weighs around XXX
if your catching bullets you'd love these paper scales, on the other hand, if your catching footballs, that are fed up you'd be sorely disapointed
JMHO
BTW, good fish
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That means Matt's fish should be about 5 1/2 pounds..It was 21 inches..
LOL
In reality it was 3 1/2 pounds..
Yesterday while fishing I met a man ..he said he caught over 15 five pounders this year..I said WOW!! I've only got 4 ..He said,"I didn't actually weight them..I count all my 20 inchers as 5 pounds..LOL I've caught plenty of 20 inchers..none were even close ot 5 pounds..
Here's another from Matt this year at 23 inches..a whooping
4 1/4 pounds
Take paper weights for what they are. An "average", not based on TIME of year, LOCATION of waterbody, TYPE of water body. So many variables.
As MT and C7 have both stated. I would gues I have caught somewhere near 25 bass over the 20" mark. I consider each of these great fish. Mind you most of the caught out of the same body of water, I have caught a few that were 3 1/4 pounds if I was lucky. Others have passed the 5.5 or 6 pounds mark.
It is understanable judging fish can be hard. I have got an eye for it because I am around fish daily. I will weigh some just to see how close my guess is. Maybe 2 and 3/4. Or 1 and 1/2 pounders. Sometimes my guesses are way off. But if you think about it, if you have a 4.5 pound fish, to be "5.5" pounds, it would take something like 17% of FISH. I'm not good at math by any means, and my numbers may be slightly wrong, but that's alot of fish.
It's a great fish none-the-less.
__________________ ...on the water or in the woods...
All I know is my scale said 5 3/4 lbs.
I checked my scale with 3 lb, and 5 lb weights.and it was right on the weight.
I just looked at the wrong side of the scale, the KG side.
The 3 lb weight.
The 5 lb weight.
__________________
What ever you do be carefull, and
remember to use ear plugs
The Hearing you save will Be Yours
jrbsr. Regardless of what it weighs, its a really nice bass. I would be proud to boat it and I would show it off to everybody. In the end, weight and length don't really matter, its the memory of catching it that will stick with you, and nobody can dispute the memory.
Espeasly this memory.
The one where it siad Thank You for letting me back in the water.
And waived Good Bye.
Theres one thats bigger in the pond.
I saw it swimming around, but where I was standing I couldn't get my lure to him/her before it went somewhere else.
I was told by the pond owner that a 9 1/2 lb bass has come out of this pond.
This pond has produced some Big bass.
It has good forage, so the bass are feed really good.
__________________
What ever you do be carefull, and
remember to use ear plugs
The Hearing you save will Be Yours
Bass Lenth = Lbs
, on the other hand, if your catching footballs, that are fed up you'd be sorely disapointed
