Any guess to the weight of this one?

[Modest_Man]

I really have no idea. The largest largemouth we've gotten so far out of the Willamette. It had a 10" largescale sucker partially digested in it's throat.



Tail of the sucker poking out.

 

[Throbbit _Shane]

id say 4 to 5.5 pounds. I'm sure Colby will have a better idea of its weight though.

 

[ChezJfrey]

id say 4 to 5.5 pounds. I'm sure Colby will have a better idea of its weight though.

I agree that's probably close...I did some bass fishing last year and year before that. The length of yours looks to be around the same as some of the largest I caught that were weighed at 3.5 or so. But, judging from the shadows in the photo, that one looks to have a much larger girth than those I caught, so factoring that gets to where I agree with Throbbit's guess.

 

[Finneus Polebender]

Fat belly, held her out a little in the first pic. Asuming your less than 6ft tall and using the thumb close up I would say between 4-5 lbs a nice bucketmouth! Whats with all the buckets and the fish pathology cooler, not to mention the suspicious black cable in your partners hand, you guys fishin or electroshockin LOL. HA HA just recognized your screen name " you guys are legit" how many largies are you guys seeing in the lower willy?

 

[GraphiteZen]

I would say 4-5#. Nice fish!

 

[Modest_Man]

I am 6'2". I believe the fish was 530mm long, which is almost 21".

We are electrofishing. We only got two adult largemouth today, but a LOT of juveniles. Tomorrow we're sampling a slough that should have a lot of adults, and I'll bring my camera again. So far the lower section (Newberg to the falls) was all smallmouth, the middle section (Newberg to Albany) we're seeing a mixture. Many more juvenile than adults. As a total percentage of fish caught bass are probably around 5%.

The two adult bass caught today were vouchered and will go to the fish pathology lab for a parasitic analysis. The one I'm holding had several external parasites, and will probably have many internal parasites as well.

 

[GraphiteZen]

What slough are you hitting tomorrow!?

 

[Finneus Polebender]

Your like me then you make em look smaller ! I would say at least 4lbs then, What was your biggest smallie so far? I bet you do find a few surprises in the slough parts , will anxiously await the photos!

 

[Bassdad54]

5.5 my guess

 

[colbypearson]

Looked like that fished lived to a healthy 5-5.5lbs to me fine with parasites or without, it shows little external wear and its clearly eating well.

I realize these test's can be highly important to a fishery, but why were the only two adult fish you caught harvested? Assuming you surveyed miles of shoreline and only yielded two adult largemouth it seems detrimental to the population in my opinion. Could be due to the longevity that the fish have lived in the system, but why not test smallmouth which sound not only more abundant but also would show similar occupancy years I understand the largemouth and smallmouth occasionally occupy different depth/cover zones and may contract differing parasites & disease. I'm really not getting on you about keeping the adult largemouth for science its just a field that interests me & I am really curious as to why the selected fish were chosen.

And the only reason I say 5-5.5# compared to the other peoples guess is because of the length of the fish coupled with the girth shown in the picture.

Would also like to hear a report of the age of that fish once the tests are concluded, for that size in what I assume isn't the ideal for largemouth I would assume its atleast 6.5-10 years old.

I also really hope the electrofishing activities in the areas that I fish with trophy class (8+) fish haven't ended with similar results.

 

[Modest_Man]

Due to our permit we are not allowed to take native fish. That leaves non-natives. We can't take small fish (under 150mm or so) as they're too small to sample. We can't take huge fish (over 600mm aka carp) as we can't fit them in the cooler. That leaves semi-large, non-native fish. So far on the whole Willamette, we've taken a total of three largemouth, a couple pumpkin seed, a crappie, and a few bluegill. We will take smallmouth when (if) we catch more of them.

A largemouth that was vouchered previously in a rock quarry I was told today was 15-20 years old.

For our electrofishing we do not sample a whole slough, we sample three 200m reaches and this particular slough is miles long - so there is no way that we catch anywhere near 100% of the fish available. We have released probably 200 largemouth alive to date - trust me the populations are more than fine.

This slough and the slough we're sampling tomorrow are downstream of the Wheatland Ferry.

The largest smallmouth so far I think was around 450mm, a bit smaller than this largemouth. It came right at the Santiam confluence if I recall correctly.

Personally, I don't enjoy euthanizing any fish, but it comes with the job. These fish can and will tell us very important things about our river systems. If I can get info about the parasites and age of the fish I'll be sure to post it.

 

[GraphiteZen]

Due to our permit we are not allowed to take native fish. That leaves non-natives. We can't take small fish (under 150mm or so) as they're too small to sample. We can't take huge fish (over 600mm aka carp) as we can't fit them in the cooler. That leaves semi-large, non-native fish. So far on the whole Willamette, we've taken a total of three largemouth, a couple pumpkin seed, a crappie, and a few bluegill. We will take smallmouth when (if) we catch more of them.

A largemouth that was vouchered previously in a rock quarry I was told today was 15-20 years old.

For our electrofishing we do not sample a whole slough, we sample three 200m reaches and this particular slough is miles long - so there is no way that we catch anywhere near 100% of the fish available. We have released probably 200 largemouth alive to date - trust me the populations are more than fine.

This slough and the slough we're sampling tomorrow are downstream of the Wheatland Ferry.

The largest smallmouth so far I think was around 450mm, a bit smaller than this largemouth. It came right at the Santiam confluence if I recall correctly.

Personally, I don't enjoy euthanizing any fish, but it comes with the job. These fish can and will tell us very important things about our river systems. If I can get info about the parasites and age of the fish I'll be sure to post it.

Good stuff!

 

[colbypearson]

Due to our permit we are not allowed to take native fish. That leaves non-natives. We can't take small fish (under 150mm or so) as they're too small to sample. We can't take huge fish (over 600mm aka carp) as we can't fit them in the cooler. That leaves semi-large, non-native fish. So far on the whole Willamette, we've taken a total of three largemouth, a couple pumpkin seed, a crappie, and a few bluegill. We will take smallmouth when (if) we catch more of them.

A largemouth that was vouchered previously in a rock quarry I was told today was 15-20 years old.

For our electrofishing we do not sample a whole slough, we sample three 200m reaches and this particular slough is miles long - so there is no way that we catch anywhere near 100% of the fish available. We have released probably 200 largemouth alive to date - trust me the populations are more than fine.

This slough and the slough we're sampling tomorrow are downstream of the Wheatland Ferry.

The largest smallmouth so far I think was around 450mm, a bit smaller than this largemouth. It came right at the Santiam confluence if I recall correctly.

Personally, I don't enjoy euthanizing any fish, but it comes with the job. These fish can and will tell us very important things about our river systems. If I can get info about the parasites and age of the fish I'll be sure to post it.

Interesting stuff for sure, how large was the quarry fish?
And im not worried about the populations it just caught my eye that only two large fish were shocked and they were both large, sparked my curiosity mostly just interested in the reasoning. I fish a few lakes here that are severely stunted so keeping two larger class fish could be detrimental.
I like the 600mm no keep rule that pretty much rules out the only bass I really care about haha.

 

[Modest_Man]

I don't know, I wasn't there. I guess it was pretty big, and had been chowing down on juvenile Chinook that had been washed in from the Willamette during high water!

 

[colbypearson]

I know in much colder mountain states fish can live into the upper teens and still only be a couple of pounds, but considering Oregon somewhat mild climate that could have been an absolute tank.

PS I accidentally clicked edit post when I meant to reply Modest_Man, my bad nothing was changed.

Interesting line of work without a doubt!.

 

[GraphiteZen]

PS I accidentally clicked edit post when I meant to reply Modest_Man, my bad nothing was changed.

I do that all the time lol

 

[colbypearson]

I do that all the time lol

I probably do it all the time and don't notice :lol:

If you ever find out some stat's on that old bass I would like to hear them, not that often tests are taken on bass that old. If it was under 600mm it likely wasn't over 8lbs assuming its a typical frame shape, witch is pretty suprising considering how slow the growth rate may be wonder what the gender was.

 

[Modest_Man]

I probably do it all the time and don't notice :lol:

If you ever find out some stat's on that old bass I would like to hear them, not that often tests are taken on bass that old. If it was under 600mm it likely wasn't over 8lbs assuming its a typical frame shape, witch is pretty suprising considering how slow the growth rate may be wonder what the gender was.

I'll try to ask tomorrow.

 

[rl206]

This electro-shocking is interesting,
Fall of 2010 they electro-shocked Silver Lake in Cowlitz Co. WA, appearently they got a 13lb 3oz largie to float up.
Crazy to think how old it must have been...

 

[SeanC]

Wow, really interesting. I am looking forward to more information regarding your results.