Ever felt screwed at your weigh in ?

[procraftrob]

I recently fished a tourney, and my weight was quite a bit lower than it should have been. My weight was 7.56. I had my big fish weighed at 3.13 pounds,I had a full limit of keepers the smallest being a thirteen and a half incher, my other 3 were 14,15,16, inches long, all were healthy fish and were not skinny at all. Thats basically saying what I figured as roughly 10 pounds of fish.

Excuding my big fish thats basically saying that my other 4 weighed on average 1.1 pounds. If you could find a fish thats over 13 inches and healthy that weighs a pound , youve seen somthing I havent. -BS- does anyone have a similar problem?

I think the methods they use on the scales is the culprit, the weight jumps around the fish are usually not done moving and they hit that button, and the weight freezes and thats what Im stuck with, It seems to me they are in too much of a rush.,and the weights can fluctuate one way or the other by a pound or so. Based on this. The tourney directors could have huge impacts on weights.

Bottom line, I think when there is this much money on the line we should be more precise with the scales.

[Terry Smith]

I would suggest calling the tournament director in person and discussing what you feel. I think you might get A lot better responce than on this open forum. I bet if you ask him to take an extra minute at the scales the director would not have A problem. Don't get me wrong I have weighed my fish out on the water and then come in and thought WTF just happend there is no way I could have that low of A weight but the next time it happened to me I asked the director if I could watch the scale myself he had NO PROBLEMS with that. CALL YOUR DIRECTOR!!!!!!!!! is the best place to start.

[Gator]

First, I will say that I agree 100% with Terry - second I will say that I am really glad I had no weights that matched yours in my tournament today LOL.

I will say this, we had one bag of fish today that we had to lift/reposition 4 times today, to the point I was getting concerned for the fish, before we got an accurate weight. Talk to your TD or the weighmaster, if you think you have been sleighted ask them, I am sure they will do everything they can to accommodate you.

[RichThiel]

Procraft,

If in the future, you have this problem again. You can ask the director to weight the fish again. You do have that option if you feel the weight is too low.

[kopper_bass]

Procraft,
I feel ya here, and can definitely understand that sense of accomplishment lost when you think you had 10lbs and the official weight you get back is only 7 and change.

Two things:
1) As others have said, when your at the scales you always have the right to ask for 1 re-weigh. use it. Talk to your TD about it.
2) remember too, the scales can be theoretically 10lbs off, as long as everybody elses weights are that far off too. The TDs always try to get their scales accurate and dead on, but realistically & mathematically it doesnt matter, as long as they stay that way for everyone to weigh-in. If your fish were off by a tad, then likely so was everyone elses. This happened to us in a team tourney, but hearing everyone else say how their weight was off, made us feel ok that we all got the same deal.

Your weight sounds quite a bit off, so its unlikely the scales were that far out of whack, but you never know. I would still give the TD a call now and discuss it with him and pose the question. if nothing else, it will keep the TD actively pursuing to get it right for ya next time.

Good Luck,

Kopper_Bass

[tunaman]

Not exactly feeling screwed, but we felt that the weight at WON Clear Lake seemed to be a bit short for some... we weighed ours on a Cull-M-Rite and they came up shorter than expected, and a few others I spoke with also felt that the weights were less than expected. Not saying that the weights were off, or any shenanigans were in place, as on-the-water weights will always be different than land-based.

I know the tournament organizations I've fished work really hard to ensure a level playing field, and believe they accomplish that.

Roger

[bss_hunter]

You need to fish some more tournaments and u just might be surprised at how usually your estimate of a fishes weight by length is bigger than they really are...newb

[Bill K]

The main point, no matter what, the time to ask for a re-weigh and make a complaint/comment is at the time of weigh-in, not later or down the road. Sorry it happened and you feel the way you do, but voice that concern at tournament time. Bill K

[g-man]

If the scale is off, its off for everyone. comunicate with the TD is always the best way to go. On another note i have weighed in a 13 plus inch fish and it weighed .68. LOL

[procraftrob]

As far as asking for a re weigh that makes perfect sense, but in my particular situation my partner was in his first tourney I have fished dozens of tourneys, and I thought he would get much more enjoyment out of going up and getting the fish weighed than I would have gotten. He didnt know any better but he shouldnt have had to.

What Im tryin to say is with thousands of dollars on the line and the technology available today, we should be far more presice.We shouldnt have to ask. Bass tourneys should be decided on bass not your ability to talk to your tourney director. The weight should be near perfect every time when there is this much money invoved, If there is NBA refs fixing games, I cant put it past a tourney director to swing a tourney or a whole season one way or another. I guarantee its happened before. Im not accusing my director though, Im more than willing to give him the benifit of the doubt, Im just saying we shouldnt have to rely on the person, it should be the scale and thats it.

As far as my 13.5 incher my point was that it had a gut on it, Ive seen a 13 incher weigh less than a pound before but the thing looked really skinny. and that was my smallest bass, i had another bass in the two pound range and another that to my estimation was just under two, with my biggest 3 I had 7pounds, according to them all five weighed 7.56.

It just doesent add up to me. and I have done a ton of tourneys most of the time I dont feel cheated in any way but this time I feel so cheated I decided to make this post.

[sTony]

Procraftrob,

You're missing the point. You have the right to a re-weigh. No matter how precise you think the weigh ins could be, trust me they're not. The industry standard is still well behind current technology. And even with the best, highest tech scales, a re-weigh still might be a required from time to time. The real problem with what happened to you, whether or not you want to admit it, is that you had an inexperienced tournament angler weigh your fish who might not have known he had the option to re-weigh his fish. Maybe had you been there you'd have asked for a re-weigh, maybe not. But don't beat yourself down as we've all done it before at some point and time. I had a weight at a tournament that I knew was well off what they said I had and I completely blanked and didn't request a re-weigh of my limit. Others can tell you they certainly have made other mistakes when it came time to weigh their limits; whether it was leaving a fish in the live well or retaining and bagging too many fish or just came to the check in late. I had a good friend and frequent poster on this site brought a big spotted bass to the scales at apro am tournament and never got it weighed in for big fish. It would have won big fish for day one but eventually not for the tournament. At some point we've all done made a critical mistake at the scales. And a lot of guys don't even know they have the right to a re-weigh.

So maybe something good came out of this for other anglers to learn from.

sTony

[FISH2WIN55]

The scales should be the same for everyone. That being said, last year in a WON event at Berryessa the scales were switched mid weigh in. That to me is a problem. If the same scale is used the entire weigh in then there should be the same reading for everyone.

[sTony]

You find out when running tournaments that sometimes scales get knocked off calibration. Sometimes the scale just needs to be zeroed out again. It happens a lot. Switching scales mid tournament sometimes happens too. What do you do if the scale doesn't want to work anymore? At least there was a back up scale available, lots of times there might not be things such as back up scale on hand. I wonder how many actually have certified their scales or is that even a requirement for a bass tournament? Beats me.

sTony

[leachman90]

Procraftrob,
Are you sure Coochie did'nt lend you his scales before you went out?

[bluefisher]

Every time i do not win!!

[Gary Dobyns]

That or he just wears magnifying glasses... Sorry buddy, this one was too easy..,,,

[RichThiel]

Why too say it Gary, I it, I it!!!!!

ROTFLMAO

Rich Thiel

[Cesar L]

[quote="g-man"]If the scale is off, its off for everyone. comunicate with the TD is always the best way to go. On another note i have weighed in a 13 plus inch fish and it weighed .68. LOL [/quote]

I had a 5 fish limit for 3.11 at shasta during the stren in jan. So if you had spots i could believe it.

[procraftrob]

I had all largemouths...

[mark poulson]

I am the weighmaster for one of the AC trails down here in SoCal.
You are entitled to have your fish reweighed immediately if you want. You and the weighmaster should put them back in the holding tank so they are rewatered, and then reweigh them.
We use a scale with a laundry basket and plastic lid, plus a weigh bag. Once the fish are in the weigh bag, the plastic lid, a piece of lexan with a handle, is placed over the bag to calm the fish quickly.
I zero out the scale with the weigh bag and lid on it before every fish is weighed, and it works out really well. We do drive by weighins, so the fish are in the livewells until the last minute, and can go right back in to be driven down to the ramp to be released.
That way, no one's fish are just sitting in a bag in line, waiting to be weighed, so there's no pressure to hurry up when we actually do the weighin.
My TD, Mike Iljin, insists on everyone tagging their big fish, and being right there when their fish are weighed, and that they are satisfied with the weighin before they leave the scales.
All TDs want happy anglers, since the success of their trail depends on repeat customers and happy anglers make repeat customers.
I'm sure the TD of your tournament would be happy to reweigh your fish when you're at the scale.
Not everyone is going to cash a check, but everyone can still have a good time, and leave feeling like they got a fair shake, and had their shot.

[Elken]

I was at a tournament where someone felt their weight was short 3 - 4 lbs. They complained about it after the weigh-in for that day was over. Someone had been videoing the weigh-in and the tournament officials looked at the tape; the weighmaster had held the plastic lid over the fish in the basket, but didn't put it in the weigh basket. The scale was zeroed for the weight of the basket and lid, so they were shorted the weight of the lid. When your are weighing in you need to watch what is happening.... if in doubt, ask for a re-weigh right then.