There are two things I can never believe at face value....someone's golf score, or the weight of the bass they just caught.

The last real big un I boated had been broke off so many times I didn't even snap a pic. I threw it in the well and went straight to town to the scrap yard and sold it for all the ole hooks it was carryin around. Ifn I'da took a pic, the pic prolly woulda weighed 5lbs or so.

I carry two scales on the boat. The first is a berkley 50 lb scale, the second is a Salter Brecknell Electro-Sampson.

Most scales, when you try to have them certified will fail miserably. The certification process involves being within 1 increment (up or down) of dead on. In other words, if you weigh in tenths you can be a tenth above or below but that's it. The scale is tested at every 5 lbs up to its maximum weight and you must meet the criteria at every weight.
Every salter that I've ever tried to have certified has passed with flying colors. Every other scale either fails miserably at least 90% of the time. I feel very lucky to have my Berkley. The Berkley brand scales tend to be off quite a bit but if you buy 10 or so and work your way through them you'll usually find a good one.
The question is, how accurate do you need your scale to be? I fish for line class records so I need a certified scale on the boat at all times. It just depends on your plans.

Why cant you just take somebodies word? I understand the need to see 100% proof when money is on the line, but when it is not; what does it matter. Dont be that guy that has to one up everbody and bring people down. Thats called being a "hater!"

I took a picture of my wife with her biggest fish ever. When she saw the picture she asked me if I thought it made her bass look big! I was speechless.

The little smiley face after my comment implies that I was just kidding around.

Why do so many people care soo much about this. Like Mark said, if it isn't in a tourney who cares? I stopped caring what exactly my fish weigh a while back. Now-a-days I just measure my fish and thats it. Every once in a while I will run a fish up to the marina to get it weighed, hand held scales are too inconsistent.

Either way, if someone post a pic and says they have a fish that weighs XX lbs. then fine. It doesn't affect me, and believe it believe it or not, it doesn't affect you either.

kind of like when I gave a report on Dunlap and you basically called me a liar.

thats one heavy picture!

GREATNESS!!!

IMO, it doesn't really matter. If someone catches a 6 lber and needs to tell everyone that it was 9 lbs to feel better about themselves, then so be it. I will congratulate them on their catch. When I was in my teens, I often felt that way. I felt like I needed to prove myself. Now, after fishing tournaments for a few years, I have realized that I can lie to myself and others, but at weigh in it's put up or shut up. I used to fish some tourneys with the guys who said that they lost a 20lb sack. Then say it again next week and the next.

For me, I have to brutally honest with myself. I will be the 1st to admit that I live 15 minutes from Fork, and I usually fish a minimum of 20 days a year on that lake, for the past 12 years or so. Yet, I have never caught a 10 lber. I have not even had "the one that got away". I've caught 3 nines and countless 6-8, but no 10's. At weigh in time though, it's not about the one that got away, or how many 10 lbers you've caught, it's what you did against everybody else today on the scales.

I don't really care if anyone believes me or not when I post pics of all my trophy catches, I know this ten pounder makes you green with envy. So all I have to say to you is : LEARN TO FISH. Then one day you too can post pics of trophys like mine

scales and GPS's have made liars out of more bass anglers than anything else. leave the scales at home. it's your story,stick to it.

I� really enjoyed reading this one, had the experience at the McD�s tournament on Fork when my 2.25 pound lunker turned into a 1.98 at weight in. No money for me; that�s when I went back to the house and checked accuracy of my scales.
I have the less expensive$15 Berkley digital and the $100 X-Tool set with live well buoys. The Berkley scale is more accurate then the top of the line X-Tool culling system scale (0ff by a quarter pound to the heavy). As for the humane X-Tool buoys; those thing would hold on to a � pounder. I had to do the Skeet Reese modification on the X-Tool buoys; fish don�t get off now.
Advice is checking your scales with a 2, 5, and 10 pound weight so you have an idea of accuracy. Catch fish and have fun; we all know the older the fish story the bigger the fish.

I had a guy at ray hubbard tell me today that he caught a 11# yesterday and his friend caught a 13#. LOL. I have been catching some decent fish out there lately, but i think they would have been really surprised if they had weighed them. It seems that some people have no idea how to judge the weight of fish.