# How much weight can a fish lose 12 hrs after being caught?



## thill (Aug 23, 2006)

I caught a nice brown trout the other day and as I'm standing over it with a fillet knife, I thought to myself, "dang I should put that on a scale first". I weighed it with my bathroom scale, weighing myself first, then with me holding the fish. I did this twice and both times the fish weighed in at 18lbs. I got online to check out the master angler minimums and the minimum for brown trout is 16lbs. So, I put the fish in a cooler with 3 bags of ice and about 3 gals of water and went to the local bait shop in the morning to have it weighed on a certified scale. 

Problem was the shop I went to didn't have a certified scale, so they weighed it on the same scale they weigh deer with. 

The fish only weighed 14lbs :sad:. I was a little embarrased by the ground shrinkage I wittnessed, and instead of getting it weighed on a certified scale, I just filleted and grilled it (it was awesome!). When I pulled it out of the cooler, it definately didn't look 18lbs. 

Can fish lose weight within 12 hours of being caught? Even while being stored in ice water? 

Just wondering.


----------



## bassdisaster (Jun 21, 2007)

Well my answer would have to be yes, but not 4lbs. Id have to say you over estimated and they under weighed it
If it were me and it was a stream fish rather than a lake brown i certainly would had it weighed on a certified scale, master angler fish dont come that often!
I bet it was damn good eating tho!

BD


----------



## Matt V (Dec 8, 2004)

If they weighed a 16# fish on the same scale that they weigh deer on, I doubt it was very accurate. Most hand held fish scale's would be more accurate than that.


----------



## thill (Aug 23, 2006)

bassdisaster said:


> Well my answer would have to be yes, but not 4lbs. Id have to say you over estimated and they under weighed it
> If it were me and it was a stream fish rather than a lake brown i certainly would had it weighed on a certified scale, master angler fish dont come that often!
> I bet it was damn good eating tho!
> 
> BD


 
It was a lake brown. If that were a stream fish, it would be a the taxidermy now.


----------



## bassdisaster (Jun 21, 2007)

A few years ago a good friend of mine caught a 28" 11 1/2 pound STREAM brown, but I cant tell you where :lol: 
He took it to a local Taxidermy shop, called them months later, turns out they LOST it! along with his Bear cape:yikes: 
Guy went out west hunting, while he was gone I guess a freezer quit and alot of stuff rotted!
He was and prolly still is pissed and sick over it!

BD


----------



## waterfoul (May 18, 2005)

Did you get a picture of it? You can always turn it in for the "catch and release" MA award... even though you kept it. You don't need a weight for those entries.


----------

