Just dinner plate size!!!!

I finished skinning out the CAT Crappiefest big fish........here are some stats for the folks asking me!!!

Girth......16�"
Length......16�"
Weight today after thaw and rinse...3.10#
Weight the day of tourney when I got home 3.14#
Stomach content-Zero, nothing....ZOT!!!!!

Roe weight.... .32#
Width of abdominal cavity...2�"
Width at widest point of back 2�"

Over all, the fish was in very good shape! Only one scale missing that I could see on first examination. There is a
large hole next to the mandible......obviously where they used the GAFF!!!!!

This report could leave many more ???? than answers!!!!
Were the females on the move and not eating??
How much weight do fish loose from leaving them in a cooler or livewell for extended periods.
How much would this fish weigh come summer when it has shed the roe??
On and on!!!!!!!!!!!

Doesn't the acid in the fish keep on dissolving food even though it's dead?Darrell

es

Yes Darrell.....that is why there is a difference when someone keeps a fish in a cooler for a day vs. freezing it. 0�-10� is way different than 32� cooler full of ice when it comes to the fish. I have a much harder time skinning a fish that has been left in the cooler for a day by far! Scale loss is the biggest thing, Especially around the gut!

good info!

Interesting stats. Not nuch changed. I always wondered how much the eggs weighed.

Yep, that is interesting.

Learned something here. Thanks for sharing. That was a dandy of a fish.

The top picture is just before I put the knife to it. I soak the fish in a chemical to tighten the skin which makes it's eyes shrink and the fish looses a little bit of moisture!

BB
Years ago I caught a large bass and had it mounted. When I called the taxidermy he said to wrap it in a wet white towel then freeze, is this still a good practice to protect the fish?

That's the same thing I was told to do also. Both my bass mounts from 89' & 92' still look great except for a small minor moving accident

What's your thoughts on this BB????

Yes......wrap in a cotton towel, t-shirt, or pillow case that is been soaked and rung out. Then bag it up and freeze. The cloth makes the fish ridged preventing damage and the water prevents dehydration. If you have to hold on to it for awhile, it keeps the fish fresh. When I thaw the bag out, the fish actually thaws sooner than the cloth. I like to skin the fish about � thawed. I have received fish from Ohio that were prepped that way and arrived in two days froze like a brick. Oh course they had put them in a box full of foam peanuts, but the point is the fish were in good shape. I just ran a marathon of skinning and mounting 24 fish in 16 days. That isn't counting replicas that I have done. OR honey dos!!!!!!