Alot of people on here seem to disagree a lot with how much they think fish weigh in pictures so I thought it would be fun to put this together and you can see how you do. Below are some pictures of fish I caught this summer and weighed with an accurate digital scale. See if you can guess the weight of the fish in the pictures. What you will probably find out is it is pretty much impossible and just depends on how close you are to the camera or how far you hold the fish out. I think a lot of people on here over estimate the weight of the fish they catch if they dont actually weigh it. At the bottom of the post are the actual weights of the fish in the pictures so you can see how you did. (I dont want to hear "That fish can't weigh that much" because these weights are accurate. Give it a try

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****GO DOWN******

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---------------RESULTS--------------

1) 17 1/2 inches and 2.8 pounds (looks much smaller than second fish...)

2) 17 inches and 2.7 pounds

3) 19 1/2 inches and 3.8 pounds

4) 3.6 pounds

5) 20 inches and 4.2 pounds (looks huge but is just close to the camera)

6) 5.2 pounds

7) This one was just for fun. 45 inch muskie about 22 pounds

---- Conclusion ----

These weights are accurate. I think what you will see is that you just CAN NOT accurately guess a fishes weight by the photo that was taken. The only accurate way is to actually weigh it. Hopefully this was kinda fun to look at. How did you guys do?

I undered guessed.  I used the hands in the pictures to guess the length and girth.  I think I did pretty good.

1-  2lbs  (it looked about the same length as #2 without the girth)

2- 2-2.5lbs  (didn't think it weighted less then #1)

3- 2.25lbs  (looked longer then #2)

4- 3-4lbs (looked to have some girth)

5- 5lbs (looked bigger because of the pic)

6- 5lbs (thought was about the same as #4 just holding it at a different angle)

7- muskie I had no idea, and I've never caught one, so I didn't even try to guess.

That was fun.....

I was off by alot on a few of them. It is impossible to tell how much a fish weighs by pics.

Good post !!

I was within 1/2 lb on all except one. I used the size of your hand and fingers to size up the fish.

And yes, I agree, most fishermen overestimate theri catch, including those with their own fishing shows...

Those are some good looking lakes.  Where is it?

That second one looked like a real football.

Some of the pictures you can tell your arms are stretched out. The 2lb bass look around 3lbs in the picture. The other ones were much easier to tell.

To answer Bassn's question. The lakes are located in Iowa which helps explain why the fish are not very large.  I had a lot bigger fish that would have been fun to put on there but I did not get pictures of them.  Also, a lot of people stated they could tell the size of the fish by hand size, if you held the fish in a way your hand wouldn't show (like Bill Dance when he holds the fish by the gills sometimes) then it would be pretty much impossible to tell the size.