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Predicting Weights of Giant Largemouth Bass

By Terry BattistiJuly 27, 2005

For the past 25 years there has been a race to catch the next world record largemouth bass. Although there have been a few close calls amongst record hunters, the 22 pound 4 ounce record caught by George Perry in 1932 has yet to be officially broken. Recently, there have been a few record size fish caught that have not been officially documented, and therefore, are not recognized as the true record.

Without a doubt, there will be no fish “more scrutinized” than the next world record largemouth bass. Proof of this lies in recent and past attempts at record fish submissions. Although a fish has a very low chance of being accepted as the new world record without proper documentation, there will always be someone that enters a fish that has a very questionable pedigree. The last submission attempt regarding an all class world record is a prime example.

In the past few months, I have been obsessed with the thought of being able to estimate the weight of these gigantic green eating machines. Past models, or formulas as many people call them, are poor at estimating the weight of a bass of such proportions. The reason for this is due to the fact that these models were fit to a population of bass that are far lower in weight than record class fish. Therefore, it is critical to develop a more accurate model to validate future submissions of trophy sized fish based on measurements typically submitted by anglers i.e., length and girth.

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