Measure Twice, Cull Once
It still strikes me as a little bit odd that those of us in the bass world are among the rare breed that cares primarily about the weight of our fish. Musky anglers look for that treasured 50-incher. The Alaskan trout hunters covet 30-inch rainbows. We’re all about that 10-pound bass.
As I’ve written before, scale weights are a touchy topic. I suppose you can fudge a length just as you can a weight, but it still seems harder to turn a 15-incher into a 20-incher than it is to turn a 7-pounder into a 10-pounder. Still, there are all sorts of ways to semi-reliably document the length of your catch, including shirts with rulers and regulations built into their design (which may or may not account for shrinkage). Hanna carries a sewing tape measure in her tackle kit when we travel, not necessarily because she cares about specific goals, but rather because she wants to take accurate length and girth measurements if we catch something for which we’ll want to get a replica made.
There are also various commercial standalone measuring devices. In bass tournaments, the Golden Rule was the gold standard for many years. Many bass boats still come with one, or with a reasonable facsimile thereof. The musky guides we’ve fished with have all used the Muskie Bumper, which easily folds and unfolds to make both storage and quick measurements easy.
I’ve found a company called Salty Bones that makes state-specific vinyl rulers, combining a folding tape with a given area’s minimum (or slot) size restrictions for various species. They even have a QR code on them so you can stay up-to-date with any changes in the regs.
But what do you do if you catch a fish that exceeds the length limits on any of those items? Or you want to convert the length of an especially long fish to it’s approximate weight? There’s another enterprise that has you covered. Release Ruler of Florida makes a wide range of length-to-weight measurement tapes, everything from crappie on up to bluefin tuna and beyond. They have regs rulers for Florida’s Atlantic Coast and a separate one for the Gulf side as well. The one that thrilled me the most, however, was their ruler dedicated to measuring sailfish, our new favorite species. Despite the fact that we’ve now landed 81 of them over two trips to Casa Vieja Lodge, I really had no idea beyond the most general estimate of how much they weighed. To be honest, I didn’t care when I caught them, and I don’t really care now. Still, I ordered the ruler as soon as I saw it. It will make a great decoration along the top of the wall above the windows in my office. You’re welcome to do the same, or mount it on the transom of your boat or throw it in your suitcase.
Release Ruler also makes a series of belts that have dimensions built in, so you’ll never forget to take your measuring implement along with you on the boat. If you do elect to use it to get the exact length of your fish, you will of course need to take it off and lay it out flat. For the sake of the rest of us, please make sure that your pants remain tight enough to remain mostly upright – otherwise we’re going to question the validity of the exaggerated inches in your measurement.
