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Barbel weight drop?

C

Colin Dapp

Senior Member & Supporter
I remember a long time ago a respected barbel angler told me to always weigh fish straight away as they lose weight after being caught. I recently caught a pb, I weighed the fish at X pounds . I phoned another angler (on the same water) to come and help photo and weigh the fish again. He weighed it at Y pounds using his sling but unfamiliar scales so I am not sure that he zeroed them properly. It was 13 oz less that the first weight. The fish is known and was caught two weeks before at X-3 oz.


Has anyone had a similar experience and how much did the weight drop? And over what time? This was about 25 minutes


My quandary is when I am asked ‘What is the weight of that fish’ should I answer X or Y? I realise that its not a record so only matters to me but.
 
13oz drop in 25 mins!!! Christ that’s a secret diet I need to know about. 😳
in all seriousness I’d put that down to a scale error.
after weighing in his sling and scales did you not put it back on your own to confirm your original weight?
I have caught known fish and weighed them to find they’ve been over a pound lighter a month later but we know the reasoning in this case to be it being full of spawn when I’ve caught it and empty the next time round.
That’s obviously Not the case here so I’d say your pals scales need checking.
 
Colin Dapp said:
I remember a long time ago a respected barbel angler told me to always weigh fish straight away as they lose weight after being caught. I recently caught a pb, I weighed the fish at X pounds . I phoned another angler (on the same water) to come and help photo and weigh the fish again. He weighed it at Y pounds using his sling but unfamiliar scales so I am not sure that he zeroed them properly. It was 13 oz less that the first weight. The fish is known and was caught two weeks before at X-3 oz.


Has anyone had a similar experience and how much did the weight drop? And over what time? This was about 25 minutes


My quandary is when I am asked ‘What is the weight of that fish’ should I answer X or Y? I realise that its not a record so only matters to me but.
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I would be more inclined to trust my scales and weighing approach. You've doubtless weighed a few fish in your time so why doubt yourself now? I've weighed known fish (not barbel) that were down in weight compared to when they were caught before and after me. It made me question things so I checked that the sling was zero'd (it still was on the mechanical scales) and then filled the sling to repeat the weight before checking with other scales. Turned out pretty accurate.

And 13oz change in weight over 25 mins is definitely down to a scales or weighing error rather than weight loss.
 
John McGough said:
A few ounces maybe but I wouldn't have thought that much. Personally I wouldn't retain a fish for 5 minutes let alone 25 minutes even if it was a British record.
No criticism, each to their own ;)
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we are told to rest fish before returning. I have left fish for 10 minutes before now, apparently ok, then they go belly up and you have to start again,
 
John McGough said:
A few ounces maybe but I wouldn't have thought that much. Personally I wouldn't retain a fish for 5 minutes let alone 25 minutes even if it was a British record.
No criticism, each to their own ;)
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I’ve retained a lot of summer barbel for 20 mins plus and that’s often before I’ve even unhooked them.
If they ain’t kicking and screaming they ain’t going nowhere. It’s for their own good to get proper recovery in a spacious landing net.
 
Nicholas Cole said:
I would be more inclined to trust my scales and weighing approach. You've doubtless weighed a few fish in your time so why doubt yourself now? I've weighed known fish (not barbel) that were down in weight compared to when they were caught before and after me. It made me question things so I checked that the sling was zero'd (it still was on the mechanical scales) and then filled the sling to repeat the weight before checking with other scales. Turned out pretty accurate.

And 13oz change in weight over 25 mins is definitely down to a scales or weighing error rather than weight loss.
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Ive lost a couple of pounds on many occasions, in much less time, 💩💩💩
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’ve retained a lot of summer barbel for 20 mins plus and that’s often before I’ve even unhooked them.
If they ain’t kicking and screaming they ain’t going nowhere. It’s for their own good to get proper recovery in a spacious landing net.
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If it takes 20 minutes for your barbel to recover then perhaps you should consider if you're using adequate tackle.
My local club, Ringwood and district have imposed a maximum of 15 minutes retention time.
Having said that common sense prevails and should a barbel require longer in warm conditions then they get longer.
 
John McGough said:
If it takes 20 minutes for your barbel to recover then perhaps you should consider if you're using adequate tackle.
My local club, Ringwood and district have imposed a maximum of 15 minutes retention time.
Having said that common sense prevails and should a barbel require longer in warm conditions then they get longer.
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Is that retention, or, recovery time ? if recovery, what a ridiculous rule, what happens if you break it ? and who is timing it ? as you say, in the very hot recent summers, when the oxygen in the water has been very low, they do take much longer to recover than normal. And i'm 100% CERTAIN, Richard is using the appropriate tackle.
 
Seems like a common sense rule to disuade anglers from keeping barbel excessively just for the reasons getting a nice trophy shot!
 
John McGough said:
If it takes 20 minutes for your barbel to recover then perhaps you should consider if you're using adequate tackle.
My local club, Ringwood and district have imposed a maximum of 15 minutes retention time.
Having said that common sense prevails and should a barbel require longer in warm conditions then they get longer.
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Yeah I don’t agree I’m afraid.
my gear is to my belief more than up to the job of landing them quickly but you can’t fix or enforce a time to recover a Barbel. That’s just a really silly rule.
It takes as long as it takes and it’s very dependent on the venue, time of year, swim, water conditions, even time of day.
don’t get me wrong I’m not stupid enough to let them run around to exhaustion and I’m not stupid enough to fish for them in a heat wave but a 20 minute recovery time after a 5 minute battle with a big girl is quite acceptable in my view. I’d sooner see an extra 5 minutes in my care than 5 minutes too early and watch her sail down stream on her back.
for me it’s nothing to do with a trophy shot or getting that perfect to the gram weight, it’s simple really. I release them when they are good and ready to go. Not a minute before.
 
Yes, but it also seems common sense to retain the fish for longer than 15 minutes if you consider that the fish hasn't fully recovered. Rather than imposing local rules, the BS barbel handling code should suffice. To me, such a definitive rule removes common sense from the equation.
 
Never trust any scales unless you are checking them regularly. Years ago I found out a pair of Avons I owned were weighing 9 oz light. I had defended the scales on the bank because they were Avons but when I went home and checked them I found out the truth. I went out and bought a set of Graham and White scales and have never looked back.I also have 8lb Avons for smaller species. I check my scales with a set of weights I bought off of Ebay. The vendor sold the actual scales and weights separately. The scales had already sold when I got the weights, the person who bought the scales must have been well upset. No Barbel will lose 13 oz that quick. What I would do is check your own scales against known weights like bags of sugar and if they are accurate then go with your own weight. If your scales are accurate it might be worth mentioning it to the other angler, his scales might be well out.
 
Just to clarify common sense does prevail regarding the 15 minutes rule, we have no issues with barbel being retained for longer to recover and the bailiffs are aware of this. We DO have issues with barbel being retained for over an hour until someone arrives to photograph it, it is the clubs responsibility to look after the fish NOT the anglers ego.
 
Phil Nixon said:
Just to clarify common sense does prevail regarding the 15 minutes rule, we have no issues with barbel being retained for longer to recover and the bailiffs are aware of this. We DO have issues with barbel being retained for over an hour until someone arrives to photograph it, it is the clubs responsibility to look after the fish NOT the anglers ego.
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That makes far more sense Phill.
I can understand the need to get something in writing on this if your club has been subject to anglers unnecessarily retaining fish for those lengths of time just to obtain photos.
trying to put a numerical time figure on such a rule is quite an impossible task but I’d say you’d covered it very clearly in that post. 👍🏻
 
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