Boga style scale and mortality ?

[Rockport24]

congrats on the fish, sounds like a monstah!

the kayak guys have talked in inches forever because it's nearly impossible to weigh a fish while sitting in a kayak and release it, at first I thought guys were catching 40 pounders every weekend! Then you get used to it. Still - when somebody gets anything over say, 47 ya gotta wonder if it's tipping the 50 pound mark. There are entire tourneys based on inches and not pounds, so why not embrace it, if you get a fish over 50 inches you pretty much know at that point, right? Even if you don't really think it weighed 50 pounds, how many 50 INCH fish are caught? not many!

[Clogston29]

Originally Posted by Rockport24

There are entire tourneys based on inches and not pounds, so why not embrace it, if you get a fish over 50 inches you pretty much know at that point, right? Even if you don't really think it weighed 50 pounds, how many 50 INCH fish are caught? not many!

Not necessarily. My prev two best where 51" and one was 44.5 and one 45 lbs. this one was 52.5" so I'm thinking it could have tipped 50 but not sure. North shore fish, at least the ones I catch, are skinny. This one had some girth but not like you see in fish down south.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[numbskull]

What you are worrying about is called isthmus injury. It seems an issue in snook but less so in other species. I think it has been looked at in LMB and Muskies. As I recall it didn't make any difference in release mortality in those two species but you might try searching it to be sure.

I doubt it is a major problem for big stripers, the bigger issue is likely the time out of water to both weigh and photograph them. Just because they swim away doesn't mean they survive, and when air and water temps are high the mortality rate soars (greater than 25%) very quickly while out of water. This is why what SK does (carefully weighing, measuring, photoing, and recording each fish.....particularly when it takes him forever to unhook them with his barbed hooks) is inexcusable and he ought to know better.

If you use the length/girth formula I think you are supposed to use fork length.......then subtract 10# if you used an eel or boat.

[DZ]

I never thought I’d see the day when the few casters who started the Catch and Release ethic and played a major role in protecting the striped bass for this current generation would be criticized for weighing and then releasing striped bass… alive. No one should feel guilty about hanging the cows that they’ve caught on a hand scale and then releasing them with great care. It’s because of casters like us that many of you are still able to catch striped bass. Zeke Silva, Glen Flosdorf, Fred Thurber, Brad Burns, and many others from Jersey to Maine were the trail blazers of the C&R ethic which did not even exist within the striped bass fishery before the mid-1980s. If you want to measure your bass before release fine, if you want to estimate the weight by formula fine, but do not criticize others for practicing C&R the way they do. Just remember - we’re not all perfect but it’s the SPIRIT OF WHY WE’RE DOING IT WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF C&R. Please respect that.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by DZ

I never thought I’d see the day when the few casters who started the Catch and Release ethic and played a major role in protecting the striped bass for this current generation would be criticized for weighing and then releasing striped bass… alive. No one should feel guilty about hanging the cows that they’ve caught on a hand scale and then releasing them with great care. if you want to estimate the weight by formula fine, but do not criticize others for practicing C&R the way they do. Just remember - we’re not all perfect but it’s the SPIRIT OF WHY WE’RE DOING IT WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF C&R. Please respect that.

I haven't heard anyone criticize... but I don't completely understand your post. C and R people shouldn't be criticized specifically for c and r. However, if they are releasing the fish after handling it in a way that will ultimately kill it, then it completely defeats the purpose of catch and release. It may be blissful ignorance. From the studies I have read, there is evidence that hanging a fish from a lipping device is often fatal. I have decided that I won't use them because I am not releasing fish to avoid filleting them, I do it to avoid killing them. If further studies back it up, I will start to criticize people who use them, just as I would criticize the guy who kicks them down the rocks. At least a guy who keeps it is going to eat it.