Sorry for the double post, but I hit the wrong key !
I hope this doesn't seem out of place, but I'm curious to know a) how accurately you measure your fish and b) whether your think they shrink a little bit as they die off. Here's my experience.
1. Catch a good fish and take a measurement from tip to the tail to tip of the snout (Point A to Point B) and come up with, for example 40 " ( this is an outside measurment (not lying the tape over the fish to pick up the additional length from the girth of the fish). Sound Simple.
2. Later, Put the fish on a flat rock and try to get a more accurate measurement, pulling the measuring tape tight, to be more precise. ( this often results in the loss of a 1/2 " to 1 1/2" from the previous measurement. OK, I can understand the tight tape, flat surface method.
3. For those fish that are kept, measure the fish, just berfore filleting to get a more accurate measurement, under the light, measuring tape tight, and Point A to Point B again. I've noticed that sometimes I loose another inch or so.
So, I don't know how you measure your fish, but I'm willing to wager that if you take a quick measurement in the water or on a non-flat rock, or lie the tape over the belly or if your tape is not tight, that the actual measurement may be off by anywhere from 1-4 inches.
Whether they actually shrink after a couple hours, I just don't know, but of the few fish I've taken home, the measurement seems a little off from what I thought was a very accurate, previous measurement.
I'm curious to know and may post this on other sites to see what others think. Any thoughts ?
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