hi, i've been showing people the picture of the 20" smallie i caught a few weeks ago on 4 lb test w/ ul and everyone asks the weight.  I don't think it is a true trophy fish unless you take the setup into consideration.  

so, i was wondering if anyone that has a lot of experience with weights of fish to help me with a figure (the online fishing calculators give such a wide variety of numbers) ... the pic of it is in my profile pic to the left (it was extremely meaty) and it is 20" long, 14" girth... i was thinking about 5 lbs

thank you

brad

I'd say between 4lb8oz, and 5lbs.

Smallies are reel bad for being very long and super skinny.  This fish could be anywhere from 4 to 6.5 I always look at the width across the back.

Garnet

The BassResource calculator comes up with 4.67. NY DNR estimates weights based on samples referenced by length only. The NY estimate for a 20" smallmouth is 3 lbs 14 oz, 22" represents a 5 lb 3 oz smallie. So, I suspect your bass was either side of 4 lbs.

Avid came up with this observation and  I agree with him:

Most "5 lb" bass that are not weighed actually weigh around 3 lbs. "Around 7 or 8 lbs" would probably weigh 5 lbs on scales.

Calculators are a general estimate. You can purchase a digital scale for not a lot of money and it will take the guess work out of the equation in the future.

i would say probably 4.5

i say 4-5lbs.

it is 20" long, 14" girth... i was thinking about 5 lbs

Any 20" smallie is a helluva fine fish, but I think 5# is a real stretch. My estimate would be from 3.5-4.25.

My PB smallmouth was 25",it weighed 4 lbs. 13 oz.It was one skinny fish.

Someone weighed a smallie at our tourney and it was 22", only weighed 2.5lbs... Very skinny

It depends it can be a very fat fish and be up to 6lbs...

Or a skinny fish and be like 2-3lbs.