When measuring your catch

[RIROCKHOUND]

I guess I dont care that much...
unless I'm weighing it for a club or a constest, an estimate of length/weight is good enough for me... I tend to ball park fish into groups...
two fish; one was probably 25+ one was probably 24-25
When I put it in my log it's a 25lb fish...

if I have to measure to see if it's a keeper, it's going back anyways....

[zimmy]

I meaure both fork length and total with tail squeezed. The fork length is much more accurate for calculating weight with the length/girth formula.

[piemma]

Does't matter to me. I wouldn't keep a fish under 36". I can tell if it's 36" or better.

[DZ]

TattooBob,
Use your hands to measure - if it takes one hand to lift its OK - but I live for "two handers".

Here is one of my favorite quotes:

"In the arm, shoulder, or brain of a big fish fisherman is a scale, and the moment the bg fish goes in the air, the fisherman, no matter what his blood pressure is, places the scale under the fish and coolly weighs it"
Norman Maclean author of The River Runs Through It.

DZ