Some striper fishermen from LKN are fishing Watts Barr today and caught themselves a nice Ark. Blue. They said the fish peaked out at fifty on a fifty pound scale before they could get all of the fish off the boat deck. They said that it was 48 inches in length and had a girth of 36 inches. Anybody have any ideas how much this cat would weigh. Mac
51 lbs???????? I don't have a clue Mac. Thats the danger of not carrying a big enough scale. All you can call it for sure is a 50 pounder. I'm taking a wild stab at around 65-70 lbs but I think it can differ greatly with just a little different body style of the fish. Some are all gut, some are firmer in the body and tail. Who knows???? For reference an 85-4 was 52 inches in length and 38 inches in girth. I always seem to forget to take measurements before sliding the big ones back in the water. I don't even know what my bigger cats measured??????
I just got an e-mail from a friend that caught a 48" blue with a girth of 35" on the James River in Dec. 2007 and it weighed 78 pounds.
Mac I just pulled out my general fish weight formula of Girth x Girth x Lenght Divided by 800 and came up with 77.7 lbs.Sounds about right.I can tell you that fish is exactly 15.7 lbs bigger than any catfish I have caught so far.:big_smile::wink::crazy::roll_eyes:
Mac i caught a blue 47in long with a girth of 34 in it weighted 52# also caught one 53 inlong with 37in girth ,it weighted 68# :0a26:
Jim, these fellows that caught it were striper fishing and had caught some stripers in the twenty range and a few teens. Then this blue hit and all heck broke loose. They were using 20 pound test line, with a Abu Garcia 6500 on an Eagleclaw seven foot rod.
I'll bet they had a good time.I was fishing for smallmouths one night on Percy Priest in TENN.Around 3 am or so as I was half dozing ,running the trolling motor and casting away with my spinning outfit on which I had 6lb test line.I had this tremendous crashing hit on a spinnerbait and I was convinced I had hooked the new worlds record smallmouth,in fact I was rehearsing my acceptance speach :big_smile::smile2:Turns out to be a 22lb+ striper and he and I went round and round that rockpile for about 20 minutes.Darndest fight I had had up to that point!!!!!!!:smile2::big_smile:
Well, all the known length/girth postings in fact show that a Blue Cat's weight can vary wildly based on similiar length/girth measurements. Calculations can at best be a wild guess. Still....... A darn nice Blue Cat!
For a few years a buddy and I tested the GxGxL/800 formula on blue cats. We would weigh the fish on a trustworthy scale and also take the length and girth with a tape (plastic seamstress tape works great for this - I always keep one in my catfish bag). The formula was always within about 10% of the measured wieght and tended to underestimate the weight on bigger blues, say over 40 pounds. I have also applied the formula to several big blues from record fish articles, etc, where they gave length, girth, and weight, and it was always a little bit low on those, too. The formula says that fish was in the 77 pound neighborhood. Nice fish!
the fish calculator Lengthxgirthxgirth divided by 800 with a 5% error margin,thats the formula for fish in general,should put that bad boy around 77#
LNB great fish congrats. Where is Watts Barr at on the lake if you do not mind me asking lower, middle, upper, or river? Thanks!
More than any fish I ever Caught. Someday I will and I will be stuck with the same problem????? Do they make a fish scale that goes higher?
Coffey Marketing (a sponsor on this site) has an accurate 110 lb scale and a 220 lb scale. I have the 220 lb'er because I am an optimist!:big_smile: (And I hope to max it out with a big ole BLUE):smile2: Okay, thats not realistic but a guy can dream
I can understand someone fishing for striper not having a scale over 50#. When I bought a 50# scale, I didn't think I would ever catch one that big. I think I bottomed it out 2 or 3 days later.:embarassed: About a month later, I caught one that pulled the innerds of the scale out.:crazy: Gotta get me a bigger, and better scale. I post my PB at 48#, but I honestly don't know what it is...but bigger than 50 :smile2:. LNB, they caught a heck of a fish. I bet they go buy a bigger scale. I know I am!:wink:
