Best Five 2024

SDoolittle reply :

When comparing notes about a day's fishing, my friends and I always seem to estimate what our bag would have weighed if we were in a tournament. IE: "My best five was probably 15 lbs, and my big fish was 4 1/2 lbs." How many of you do this? Do you actually weigh your fish, or do you estimate?

tomustang reply :

Well I think when it gets to the point of weighing so many, an estimate is used since you have a general idea.

I still carry a scale since you never know what you might run into

Goose52 reply :

I weigh all my fish 14" and above. This is mostly about comparing the weight/length ratio of the fish in my little lakes compared to other, more productive fisheries (factual data in the event that I ever make an appearance at our Lakes Committee meeting to try to get the fishery improved). Anyway, assuming I've caught at least 5 fish 14" or above, I can calulate exactly the weight of the top 5.

(My best 5 here was February 7th of this year - 19.51 pounds out of 39/40 degree water!)

Bluebasser86 reply :

I usually estimate unless the fish is around 4 pounds or so, then I usually weigh them. It's a good day when I have a 5 fish limit of fish big enough to be worth weighing. My 5 best, excluding trips to Mexico, went 30lbs 2ozs 2 years ago in February from a powerplant lake in Kansas on a swimbait.

Dwight Hottle reply :

I weigh mine. Here is a post from this spring which weighed 23-4 for four smallies.

Quote
Posted May 12 2011 - 08:37 PM
Went out by myself today hoping to find some clear water & hungry bass. Since the water had cleared nicely overnight I decided to try a shallow jerkbait & a deep jerkbait. Dead sticked the deep & worked the shallow. Hit my first fish of the day & was pleasantly surprised. 22.5" by 16" girth. She weighed 6lb-7oz. Second fish hit the shallow jerkbait. 5lb-8oz. Switched the deep jerk to a 2nd shallow bait. Third fish hit the previously hot bait. She weighed 5lb-6oz. Fourth fish hit the newly switched out shallow bait. She weighed 5lb-15oz. I thought I was on a roll. Kept trying for the fifth bass but it turned out to be walleye, dinner. The bite quit as the wind blew from the east & dropped the surface temp from a starting temp of 50-51 degrees to 47-48 degrees. Best day this year for quality.

Red reply :

I am still working on catching five keepers in a single outing. This is a feat I have only accomplished once!!

lazeebum reply :

I don't worry bout it too much. If I am on fish, I fish.

Marty reply :

I've twice had a best five that weighed over 20 but less than 21. All were weighed and both were from the same body of water. I generally weigh only if I think the fish could potentially be 4+, but I'll weigh 3s if I sense something good going on.

J Francho reply :

I always think In terms of best five. I weigh them if I can.

1234567 reply :

I weigh them if I think it's a DD bass. A couple years ago, I quickly found out 7 pounders were only 5 pounders With that said, I really havn't weighed any in a couple years.

00 mod reply :

For sure one of my best days..... 23 lbs +

Jeff

zip pow reply :

I always weigh my scale keeps up with the number of fish and total weight for the day easy to tell what my best five is

preach4bass reply :

Always. Even if I'm fishing a farm pond, I'm fishing a tournament in my head.

Bassn Blvd reply :

Only if I catch a decent fish over 7 pounds do I say "I wish this was tournament day." Remember, if you best 5 were 20 pounds, then chancses are very good that a lot of others in the "tournament' would have done well too.

SirSnookalot reply :

Only time my fish get measured or weighed is if some else is around with a scale or tape. I estimate the length with my shoe, 2 shoes I've got a 23" fish which is somewhere around 7#, close enough for me.

flippin and pitchin reply :

Sometimes my buddy and I will do a best five if the fishing is really good. October 2010 I had 5 smallmouth for 24.2 and caught all in about an hour. I still get Goose 52 bumps remembering that trip.

piscicidal reply :

I keep a fishing journal. In the upper left hand corner, I note the "best five" weight. +15lb gets one star. +20gets two stars. +25gets three stars.

This helps me quantify the success (or lack thereof) of each trip and gives me a quick reference that I can consult later. I can quickly scan last years journal looking for stars, look for similar conditions, and this gives me a starting point for the trip. Its been a useful tool for me.

tholmes reply :

I weigh them if there over the length of my forearm, about 18 inches. It's pretty rare, at least on the lake that I fish the most, to catch 5 bass that size. I really couldn't tell you what my "best 5" weighed.

Tom

Goose52 reply :

On 12/8/2011 at 4:19 PM, flippin and pitchin said:

Sometimes my buddy and I will do a best five if the fishing is really good. October 2010 I had 5 smallmouth for 24.2 and caught all in about an hour. I still get Goose 52 bumps remembering that trip.

Ha - I'd get at least 52 "goosebumps" if I caught 24 pounds of smallies too!

webertime reply :

Last Spring (Late April) 3 days after the ice went out on my local pond I got 6 Fish weighing 26.2lbs. The biggest 5 would have been 24lbs. The biggest was 6.2lbs on a hippy jig, the rest were all 4.5+ on 6" Hudds. Not bad for 40 degree water in Vermont!

Here's a 4.9

Fish Chris reply :

I'm really not fishing for 5 big fish. So even though I always have a scale + a backup + a backup for my backup, it's really rare for me to catch 5 fish in one trip worth weighing. Once 9 years ago, I weighed five largemouths for 40.2 lbs. About 5 years ago I weighed 5 Smallies for 24 lbs.

Of course I'd rather weigh just one 19 lb Largemouth, or one 9 lb Smallie....

Just saying...

Peace,

Fish

flippin and pitchin reply :

On 12/8/2011 at 11:26 PM, Fish Chris said:

I'm really not fishing for 5 big fish. So even though I always have a scale + a backup + a backup for my backup, it's really rare for me to catch 5 fish in one trip worth weighing. Once 9 years ago, I weighed five largemouths for 40.2 lbs. About 5 years ago I weighed 5 Smallies for 24 lbs.

Of course I'd rather weigh just one 19 lb Largemouth, or one 9 lb Smallie....

Just saying...

Peace,

Fish

Yeah you California guys have some special water. At Clear Lake, a 20 LB limit doesn't even get a second look. 27 lbs will get you a nod.

Shad_Master reply :

Since my club works on the catch-measure-picture-release method, weight is usually not something that I am tuned in to. I always carry a measure board, but usually estimate and think in terms of a "limit of Missouris" vs. a "limit of club fish". (Missouris are fish that are 15" or over).

Fat-G reply :

My PB five fish limit is 29 pounds, caught in February 2 years ago.

I don't weigh until I'm positive they're over 5 or 6.

Fish Chris reply :

Yea', Clear Lake is a really special lake for me. SOOO many nice 3 to 8 lb bass..... great catfishing.... the Crappie have been (at X's) unbelievable !

Only tough thing about Clear Lk. is that legit double digit bass are very rare. For a large # of reasons.

Fish

PS, I caught that 40.2 lb limit at a little lake called Coyote Res.

On 12/8/2011 at 11:28 PM, flippin and pitchin said:

Yeah you California guys have some special water. At Clear Lake, a 20 LB limit doesn't even get a second look. 27 lbs will get you a nod.

WRB reply :

I believe the California record for 5 largemouth bass limit is unoffical at 72 lbs., need to refresh my memory and look it up. Butch Brown posted a 65 lb 5 bass limit on U tube caught at Lower Castaic.

My best 5 bass limit was caught on the upper Castaic lake back in 1991; 11.3, 13.2, 15.1, 12.0 and 17.4 total 69 lbs. Windy rainy cold day and all these were pre spawn bass caught off 1 spot on jigs.

I don't believe we have any lakes in CA with good populations of giant bass anymore.

The best 5 bass limit during a sanctioned tournament was 62 lbs., from Casitas, all swimbait bass, caught by Danna Rosenberg and forgot his partners name.

Tom

Fish Chris reply :

WRB, that's freaking awesome ! That must have been a blast !

I've heard stories about SoCal fishing in the 80's and early 90's....

Of course I know SoCal has gotten waaay tougher, just like NorCal has. But what are you going to do ? Fish smarter, right ?

Peace,

Fish

WRB reply :

On 12/10/2011 at 11:23 AM, Fish Chris said:

WRB, that's freaking awesome ! That must have been a blast !

I've heard stories about SoCal fishing in the 80's and early 90's....

Of course I know SoCal has gotten waaay tougher, just like NorCal has. But what are you going to do ? Fish smarter, right ?

Peace,

Fish

For some like Butch and Mike Long this decade has been good; Butch made his his catches between 2008-2010. I didn't make the needed changes or spend enough time on the water. Now without trout plants our giant bass populations are crashing. These big bass are getting extremely rare and it's difficult to keep ahead the curve. Good luck and catch some giants.

Tom

WRB reply :

On 12/8/2011 at 6:26 AM, Bird dog said:

When comparing notes about a day's fishing, my friends and I always seem to estimate what our bag would have weighed if we were in a tournament. IE: "My best five was probably 15 lbs, and my big fish was 4 1/2 lbs." How many of you do this? Do you actually weigh your fish, or do you estimate?

I have always had an interest in how much my fish weighed, so I bought a accurate lab quality spring scale over 50 years ago. Today I used a digital certified scale and weigh any LMB bass that may be near or over 10 lbs, spot or smallie over 5 lbs., helps to keep me focused on trying to catch big bass. It can be difficult to estimate bass weight; accurate scale makes easy and it's fast.

Tom

ww2farmer reply :

I tend to weigh every fish I catch that looks like it's 3+ lbs, so at the end of a day of catching decent fish I always seem to refer to what my "best five" were.

FishinDaddy reply :

I weight everything over 5 lbs. The kids and I went out on a private lake about 3 years ago and our "best 5" were close to 36. We had 3 over 8 and 2 over 5 and they were all on a spook. That was the only day I have ever pulled any thing close to those numbers.

piscicidal reply :

Like JF said, I always think in terms of "best five". IMO, it is the best measure of what kind of day you had, in that it factors in both quantity and quality (quantity of quality? ) It also gives you a frame of reference against what the tournament/trail guys are doing. If I catch a 20lb bag on Okeechobee and I see that the tournament guys are winning with 25lb bags and 20lb is placing top 5, I know I'm generally doing the right thing. If I catch 14lbs and the tournament guys are coming in with 30, I need to change it up!

I had a 150fish day this July at Loxahatchee that my best five didn't weigh 15lbs. I had a six fish day there in August with my best five going 26, including an 8.5lb. I'll take the 6fish/26lb bag over the 150 fish/13lb bag, everyday!

Crankenstein Crony reply :

My best 5 came spring 2011. I went on a trip to St. Clair and ended up with 5 smallies that went over 20 pounds. There were 4 of us in the boat and low weight for the trip was 18.5 pounds. My personal best aside from St. Clair was also this spring on a little lake near my house. I had 18.5 pounds and basically they all came off 1 bait. It was a great day!! Couldn't do anything wrong!!

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