Judging Condition and Age of Fish

Age

Academic Journal Articles:

General Audience Articles:

Condition

Interesting article on growth rates

http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/growth-rates-of-fish.html

“First, when baby fish enter this world, there’s an automatic 50-50 chance they can’t make it to double-digits. That’s because half the bass hatched are boys. Boys don’t grow large. Girls do. Second, if a bass doesn’t get a meal today, it can’t make up that day. Once a day of feeding is gone, it’s gone for good. That bass loses a day of growth that it needs to push to its next size level. If your bass don’t eat properly in their youth, you’ll see it in their aging years, because they won’t reach their genetic potential. In other words, if a bass has the genetic propensity to reach 15 pounds and it spends two or three years at 14 inches because it’s competing too heavily in the food chain with its brothers, sisters, and cousins, it may only grow to 12 pounds before it runs out of time. Third, in order for a bass to reach a certain length, it must be near its “standard” weight. What that means is that in order for a bass to grow to 14 inches, it must weigh 1 lb., 7 ounces. If your 14 inch bass consistently weigh slightly over a pound, they’ve lost weight. Part of your goal should be to keep your target fish fat, all the time.”

and we need to set up some graphage like this:

Standard weights compared to fish sampled from "Your Lake"