Whopper Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) Alright here's the deal. Years ago when I belonged to a local bass club and fished tourneys the only fish I ever worried about was fish that were right at the minimum limit and would make sure before I walked them to the scales they were within the rules. Last week while on a week long fishing trip with my son the place we stayed at had four cabins full of different anglers that I knew, we were asked after the first day if we would be interested in a friendly tourney amongst ourselves each day for the rest of the week, the ante was a dollar a day per angler and two dollars for big fish of the week. Longest bass each day won the daily pot and big bass for the week got a sweet payout. On day two I caught a 19" plus largemouth that both me and my son measured twice before putting in my livewell. Rules of the the tourney were you had to bring back your biggest fish to the dock for another angler from another boat to witness, this was the only thing that I didn't like going in because of the heat we were fishing in, but it turned out to be OK because out of all the fish brought in only one didn't survive and it made it's way to the cleaning table. Back to my 19" fish, to keep it alive I had to run my livewell for a good part of the day and kept a couple frozen bottled waters in with the fish, got back to the dock, grab a witness and was shocked at what I was seeing, even with a good tail pinch I could only get 17 and 7/8's out of her, I felt like a complete idiot because I told the witness it was a 19 incher Back in the day I only ever worried about a 1/4 inch but this fish over a six hour period lost well over an inch to a inch and a quarter Have any of you guys ever encountered this before? My son and I did pretty decent in the tourney, each of us won big fish on different days and we tied each other one day, so out of five days were were top dogs for three daily's, and just missed big fish of the week. And just for the record I took a pretty good ribbing over my false measurement but the fish did stand for big fish that day Edited July 22, 2011 by Whopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 after reading the title i was afraid to open it......cause i know you usually have photos..... i have never heard of anything like that happening.....i know some things shrink when in Cold Water.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whopper Posted July 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 after reading the title i was afraid to open it......cause i know you usually have photos..... i have never heard of anything like that happening.....i know some things shrink when in Cold Water.... Yeah you and I talked about this on the phone the other day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiceGuy Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) OH YEA.. WHJ and I lost 1500 buck in a tournament on a smallmouth that was a shade over 18 inches when we caught it and at the weigh in it was around 1/8 short.... ...go figure... we had our lunker 5 ponder culled and only could weight in 3 fish for around 10 lbs.....We were ...I took the fish from the weigh master and it was short...I measured it 3 times after I caught it and it measured...Lesson learned dont fool around with close fish... Edited July 22, 2011 by NiceGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softbaitmaker Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 I have heard of a 1/2 inch a few times but never an inch or more. I do know that alot of the guys here have began using Ice and formula I use but the guys with good bags are coming in a little early and when they reach the dock that will pump out some of the colder water and add warmer water and they are seeing less and less shrinkage at the scales. I learned a long time ago that keeping fish alive can actually cost you at the scales and my partner and I lost alot of money in a tournament back years ago by keeping fish cold in summer. Partner put a fish in the live well that just barely touched the 14 inch line and when we weighed in the fish was 13 3/4 inches and cost us that fish and a 7 lb big fish. From that point on I have lines painted on all my golden rules. The Lines are all on the long side of the required size limits. If the fishes tail does not fall on the colored line they go back in the lake. Lesson well learned that day..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whopper Posted July 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 OH YEA.. WHJ and I lost 1500 buck in a tournament on a smallmouth that was a shade over 18 inches when we caught it and at the weigh in it was around 1/8 short.... ...go figure... we had our lunker 5 ponder culled and only could weight in 3 fish for around 10 lbs.....We were ...I took the fish from the weigh master and it was short...I measured it 3 times after I caught it and it measured...Lesson learned dont fool around with close fish... In the past I have seen up to a 1/4" shrinkage inch but not as much as this, that is why I always worried before if it was close Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiceGuy Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 I can tell you it was the biggest lesson I have learned tournament fishing..The tournament heads down here dont give ANY slack trying to get fish to measure...The ones I have fished anyway...Seems like sometimes they smash their mouth into the golden rule curve trying to get them short as possible..JMO.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softbaitmaker Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 Yea, I have seen that happen in TX's to NG. In my Tx weigh in's Tommy is weigh master and if he has to check a fish he places the bottom lip up against board gentley and tha will fan and squeeze the tail to try and get the longest measure possible. I got accused of allowing a short fish to be weighed in on my second event and a member complained to the VP at Heartland. The Problem was we were weighing in a Spot on the 12 inch length because Old Hickory does not have a spot length limit. So we were going by Heartland rules. The thing is Old Hickory lake has a ton of what we call half/breeds. They have some spotted Bass features and also have some Largemouth features. I made the decision to weigh it as a Spot because of Jaw bone in front of the eyes and tooth patch on Tongue and the angler was upset about me making the decision. I knew in the beginning of the year I would get this challenge at least once. With Permission from VP at Heartland I made a change that put all Green fish at 14 inches and Brown bass @ 18 inches and ended the problem. no one really knows where these half/breeds came from but they just began showing up about ten years ago so all the local tournaments here went green fish 14 across the board about 8 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BANDIT Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 That's some "Significant Shrinkage" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwbrand Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 it happened to Me and mtcarmeltriton Tuesday night caught one large mouth over 15 inches got back to ramp it was short we got second place we would have won if we could have had it. Shannon blamed it on sticking ice in the livewell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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