Estimating weight of fish

[ccm]

I don't want to be overestimating the weight of the fish we catch and we don't have a decent scale so I was wondering how long would a 1#, a 1.5# , a 2# and a 2.5# fish be. I know that the weight would depend on lots of things, such as time of year caught, etc but on an average what would your guess's be? I have been told that a 16" fish would average about 2#.

Thanks for your input.

Charlie

[scrat]

Personally and just my opinion I don't think you can go by the length to tell the weight. Because I see fish(crappie) all the time that just don't have the so called shoulders(thickness) that others have. I don't have a good set of scales myself and I just show pictures of the length of the crappie by putting a ruler in front them. I think that some postal scales would weigh them pretty close to right better than most of the fish scales that I have owned.

[CrappiePappy]

You can go by the guesstimater calculators, but even their weights can differ widely. And that's not even taking into account the difference in the body structure of a White Crappie vs a Black Crappie.

Take a 16" fish & use a calculator site ... and you get 3.41lbs ( uhhh, not hardly !!)

Take the girth x girth x length/800 formula ... and your 16" fish weighs 1.81lbs or 1lb 13oz (much more likely !!)

So, just measuring the length of the fish isn't going to cut it ... but, measure the girth along with the length & use the formula GxGxL/800 and you'll get a pretty close weight.

Now, let's take your guesstimate of a 16" fish being an average of 2lbs ... and assume the girth of the fish is 10"

10x10=100 100x16=1600 1600/800=2lbs

Now ... let's say those measurements were from a Black Crappie, and a White Crappie of the same length doesn't have quite the same girth. Let's say the White Crappie only has a girth of 9.5" ... so:

9.5x9.5=90.25 90.25x16=1444 1444/800=1.8lbs (which was the "girth" I used in the original formula statement)

So .... if 3oz is the only difference between the two fish of the same length, and you're not guesstimating your tournament weight, then a 16" fish averaging 2lbs is a reasonable standard. IMHO, only ... of course.

... cp

[cause]

a formula for estimating fish weight. would never have guessed it.

[RogerA]

A decent set of digital scales is not very expensive, why not just buy a set and quit guessing?

[M R Dux]

As a taxidermist, it's amusing how many "8 pound bass" I mount that weigh 5-6 pounds. I mount a few crappie that are the same way. To me, it is just like a whitetail deer. To have a buck that field dresses over 200 pounds, it must be much longer than a typical buck I see. Same for fish. I just go along with whatever weight the customer tells me. If they want them weighed, I'll weight them but most want to go with THEIR weight. Now when they start telling me their bass could have swallowed a basketball and the mouth on their mounted bass is much smaller than they remembered, I will take issue with that.

[chaunc]

There's so many variables with fish weight, it's pretty near impossible to guesstimate a crappies weight. Time of year being the number one. A 15 inch crappie with eggs in April will weigh much more than in July. A black crappie the same length will weigh more than a white crappie will but the white crappie grow quite longer than the black do. A shorter black CAN weigh more than a longer white. Best advice is to get a digital scale and a good ruler too. Some guys guesstimate length of their fish too.

[Ketchn]

I release a lot of larger crappie that I never weigh . I have measured a few ...length and girth and been called names for the estimates .
one fish in particular is my avatar ....she had a girth larger than her length (spring fish)and was estimated from 3.8 to 4.4 .....
now mind ya at the time I thought she was over 3 for sure and to this day I still wonder ....but for sure this ....
like the fish in my signature ,,,,,,I will never know what she weighed either .....just put it back in the water I did ...LOL
I seen a ton of fish that were well under 2 being called over 2 and so on and so forth ....
so if you really want to know what one weighs I would buy a 20 dollar digital fish scale .
it will surprise you to see how little a big crappie weighs for sure
last fish I weighed was back in the early fall and both of us thought easily 2 and she came in at just over 1.5
and my mate on that trip regularly fishes crappie tournaments ....they are very deceptive on a .....
guesstimate for sure

[theygotaeat]

like this

[STUMP HUNTER]

like this

The chart is very close to the fish I catch here in South Carolina in the spring/late fall, just know in the post spawn/summer they will weigh less