What contributes the most to a bass’ weight? Is it their diet, how they’re built, length obviously..? Am I missing something because I don’t understand why this bass weighs 8’10 and only 18 inches and mine weighs 8’0lbs. Looks half the size. I just found this bass while scrolling onlinehttps://share.icloud.com/photos/0iz6jNz_fqOw8Qj6cD_izf4cQ

If a fish is only 18 inches I HIGHLY doubt it is an 8 pounder.

1 minute ago, HaydenS said:

If a fish is only 18 inches I HIGHLY doubt there is no way it is an 8 pounder.

FIFY.

OP, What are you asking? bass don't vary in density much. Their dimensions will determine their weight. Folks claim all sorts of things about their catches that has nothing to do with reality.

1 minute ago, BassWhole! said:

FIFY.

OP, What are you asking? bass don't vary in density much. Their dimensions will determine their weight. Folks claim all sorts of things about their catches that has nothing to do with reality.

Thanks

 

15 minutes ago, Csc1331 said:

What contributes the most to a bass’ weight? Is it their diet, how they’re built, length obviously..? Am I missing something because I don’t understand why this bass weighs 8’10 and only 18 inches and mine weighs 8’0lbs. Looks half the size. I just found this bass while scrolling onlinehttps://share.icloud.com/photos/0iz6jNz_fqOw8Qj6cD_izf4cQ

Your fish looks a lot bigger than the other guys.

I’m the one in the under armor shirt. The  supposed 8lb 10oz 18 in bass is the other guys lol. 

Don't see how an 18" fish can weigh 8lbs unless it was shaped like a basketball. 

This fish measured 18" and weighed 3.9. For comparison. 

The fish in the picture with the guy in the plaid shirt is like 23-24". Those 2 fish are fairly close in weight.

The formula I came with is L X L X G / 1200 = weight of LMB in pounds.

There're other formula but this has worked for me since the mid 70’s.

 How length is measured is mouth closed to end of tail, laying flat. Girth (G) is measured around the widest area dorsal fin down.

The variances impacts actual weight but measured accurately is within 10%.

Tom

 

Where does the 18" come in to play?

Most anglers don’t measure girth and that is a major factor.

The average Black Bass, including. LMB,  girth is 75% of it’s length. Average is subjective because few are average, some are skinny and others have a Football shape body where the girth can nearly equal the of heavy body bass.

The bass in the photos represent a girth somewhere between  75% to 80% or average body LMB. The bass are around 22” to 22 1/2” long if they weigh 8+lbs.

Tom

All I’m wondering is how the bass that the plaid shirt guy caught nearly a pound heavier than the one I caught if mine literally looks like it has twice the girth (thickness) and is nearly the same length. Looks almost 1.5x the width in my opinion. It baffles me lol. No disrespect. Just curious. 

Pictures are very deceiving, his looks longer to me. Also, 10 oz is closer to a half a pound than a pound. I caught an 8lb 2oz fish that looks much like yours. The girth on this one was unreal. I was sure she was 9 and she barely went 8 because she just wasn't long enough.

9 hours ago, Csc1331 said:

Looks almost 1.5x the width in my opinion. It baffles me lol. No disrespect. Just curious. 

Your fish has slightly more girth, and slightly less length, nothing in the order or 1.5 times. Impossible to tell by photographs due to perspective, and potential lens distortion, but if I was pressed, I would say MAGA's fish would weigh just a tad over yours. What difference does it make? You caught a big fish, many fish both bigger and smaller will be caught by others both known, and unknown to you. 

Genetics, diet, age, forage availability and density of the bass in a given body of water all contribute to the weight of any individual fish.  Bigger females are almost always loners and have a home zone or spot once the spawn is over, so I guess you could consider the availability of cover into the factors.

If you could take two fry from the same  bed and plant them in different bodies of water, the only two factors that would remain constant are their genetics and age. Chances are one would outweigh the other for most of its life.

BTW, the fish that guy in the plaid shirt is holding isn't 18in.

8 hours ago, jbsoonerfan said:

Pictures are very deceiving, his looks longer to me. Also, 10 oz is closer to a half a pound than a pound. I caught an 8lb 2oz fish that looks much like yours. The girth on this one was unreal. I was sure she was 9 and she barely went 8 because she just wasn't long enough.

That isn't a fish.

That's a football!

some folks need to buy a better scale.

 

The top fish is significantly longer than 18". It doesn't "appear" to me to be an 8lb 10oz bass, but I wasn't there to see it weighed so idk. I've caught some extremely fat fish from the power plant lake I winter fish, but nothing even close to 18" and 8lbs. One this winter was the closest at 18" and 5.5 pounds. Imagine what that fish would look like to be another 3.25lbs bigger than this fish at the same length ?

He might have fed it some tungsten weights! 

 

Seriously though, scales can be way off, especially cheap ones.  Also, you have to make sure to hold the scale correctly and zero it before you weight anything.  Some people don't do that and will get inaccurate weight measurements.  

Maybe he's simply lying.  We've been known to do that, ya know.

56 minutes ago, Bankc said:

Seriously though, scales can be way off

 

This is why I generally measure my fish, not weigh them.  My scale may show the same weight as yours, but 18 inches on my board is 18 inches on yours.  Length is a much more accurate, universal measurement.  Measuring boards also do not need to be calibrated.

1 hour ago, Bankc said:

He might have fed it some tungsten weights! 

LOL.

When I was younger, I worked as a mate on a bluefish head boat, which had a nightly pool for biggest fish. Some nights we had over 50 people onboard, (that's a whole different story) it could be $200+. The "weigh in" was done with a balance beam, and sometimes it was so close that it barely tilted, and we had to reverse the fish. The winning fish was always gutted before handing over the ca$h.

 

I never understood the formula method for determining the weight of a bass.  I can tell you without a doubt that there are many different body shapes of bass depending on where they are caught.  For example, in the 18 years we have been going to St Clair, you can easily tell the difference between a St Clair smallmouth and one that was from Erie.  Either by tournaments or natural migration, it is fairly common for aerie fish to come up into St Clair.  Totally different body shapes with Erie fish being short and round like a football and big St Clair fish being long and wide like a platter.  If both weighed the same it sure would skew any formula.  Bass are the same way, Potomac bass compared to the Wisconsin bass I have caught are different body shapes and for southern strain, lake Kissimmee fish are different from Okeechobee fish.  My recommendation is to get a good scale and test it to make sure it’s accurate if you want an accurate weight.  

5 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

  My recommendation is to get a good scale and test it to make sure it’s accurate if you want an accurate weight.  

 

53 minutes ago, Jaderose said:

Maybe he's simply lying.  We've been known to do that, ya know.

 

17 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I never understood the formula method for determining the weight of a bass.

Clearly...