Length & Girth To Determine Aprox Weight Of Stripers

[live bait]

Their is a formula to determine the weight of stripers by measuring the total length & girth. I have looked it up on line, & my old brain can't make heads or tails of it. I saw that it was just used to determine the winner of the Manhattan cup contest a couple weeks ago was a striper over 60lbs. The example given on line was a 30" fish the way it was written is (30" X 30" X 30")/2,200=12.3lbs. I know that when I was a kid I cut school often but that makes absolutely no sense to me. Somebody please splain.

 

[captmike28]

The formula I have used to calculate weight in pounds with pretty good accuracy in the past is this:
Girth x Girth x Length / 800

This applies to most fish that swim upright. Flatfish are a lot trickier to figure out. Having said that there is a book that has been considered a kind of a bible for fisheries scientists for a very long time. It is known as "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine" written by Bigelow & Schroeder.

A veritable encyclopedia of fish information with drawings, habitats, life cycles, etc. Tons of interesting information. For most fish they do offer a table that tries to relate overall length to weight in pounds. You might want to pick up a copy, if it's still in print! My copy was published in 1953!! Yes, I know, the dinosaur in me coming out again.

 

[live bait]

Thanks Capt. very informative as usual

 

[Hunter704]

Not sure about my two charts, they seem to be close from anything i actually weighed. One is fluke the other is bass

 

[Matts]

I look at the bass reported in the party boat posts as being 40# .
When I catch a bass that big, its a 40!
Why ruin things with math and science.

 

[captmike28]

Not sure about my two charts, they seem to be close from anything i actually weighed. One is fluke the other is bass

I' don't know where you found these charts, Vinnie. However, they are extremely close in their length to weight estimates I see published in the text I mentioned, "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine".

So, I would say that's pretty good correlation, especially if it mimics what you observe when weighing your own catch.

 

[Roccus7]

Why ruin things with math and science.

Why not "augment" things with math and science, like a detailed log book??? How else can one verify or refute the things the Fishery Managers are saying??