10 tournament fish. Culling. How?

[Ranger690]

I have never fished a crappie tournament, but the idea is pretty cool. My question is with a ten fish limit, how in the world do you keep track of which fish to cull as you catch more keepers. I could see it if you have a visibly smaller fish, but a box full of 10 similar sized fish, I just don't know.

How do you do it?

thanks,

Dayton

[jfraley]

My advise is to allow yourself some extra time at the dock to cull fish. If you have fish that are real close, then you will have to weigh them. Unless you feel that you are not close enough to the money for it to matter. Another suggestion is to put your BIG fish in a separate livewell if possible and sort thru the smaller fish later.

Good Luck!

[David Waters]

that is what I do, I have a stratos with two different livewells next to each other. I put the sure enough fish in one livewell, and put the not so sures in the other. Purchase a good set of scales.

I have heard of some guys using floting bouy markers type of things with different colors to mark the fish. Like the bass guys do.

[Crappie Chatt]

I have divided wells. I put the OMG's (O my God!) on one side and the barelies on the other side till I get just 15 fish. Then I start culling from the smaller ones. As I remove them to the weigh-in sack, I use a balance beam to determine the 10/7 heaviest fish, hoping they all come from the OMG:D side! Heh! Heh! Heh! I don't even weigh them as they(tourney directors) will weigh them when you get to the scales that REALLY count. <*)}}}><

[whizkids]

Generally you will know what size fish is a good fish for the lake you are fishing. You will need two live wells. I have a culling system with colored safety pins and a plastic sheet with colored spaces to match the pins. When you catch a fish you think is a good fish for the lake, weigh it on a good set of digital scales that weighs in 10ths. Clip the pin to the fish and mark the weight on the matching color on your chart. Do this until you have 10 fish that you believe will weigh. Keep all these fish in one live well. In the other livewell put any other fish you catch and may have to weigh later if you do not catch 10 good ones.
When you catch a fish larger than the 10 on your cull board. Cull the smallest,by removing the pin and cliping it to the new keeper, erase the old weight on the board and record the new fishes weight.
Hint. Tournaments weigh in 100 ths. The hand scales sold for 20 to 40 dollars are not accurate enough to cull by. I use a hand scale and a culling beam to make these determinations. The Berkley and Rapala scales are just not consistent enough to soley rely upon.
Most culling systems include only 7 colors. If you are fishing a tournament that allows 10 fish, you can make your own system by painting baby diaper pins , a laminated sheet with the same colors, and an erasiable marker.
Good luck, hope to see you out there one day

[ReelFun]

Generally you will know what size fish is a good fish for the lake you are fishing. You will need two live wells. I have a culling system with colored safety pins and a plastic sheet with colored spaces to match the pins. When you catch a fish you think is a good fish for the lake, weigh it on a good set of digital scales that weighs in 10ths. Clip the pin to the fish and mark the weight on the matching color on your chart. Do this until you have 10 fish that you believe will weigh. Keep all these fish in one live well. In the other livewell put any other fish you catch and may have to weigh later if you do not catch 10 good ones.
When you catch a fish larger than the 10 on your cull board. Cull the smallest,by removing the pin and cliping it to the new keeper, erase the old weight on the board and record the new fishes weight.
Hint. Tournaments weigh in 100 ths. The hand scales sold for 20 to 40 dollars are not accurate enough to cull by. I use a hand scale and a culling beam to make these determinations. The Berkley and Rapala scales are just not consistent enough to soley rely upon.
Most culling systems include only 7 colors. If you are fishing a tournament that allows 10 fish, you can make your own system by painting baby diaper pins , a laminated sheet with the same colors, and an erasiable marker.
Good luck, hope to see you out there one day

Never fished a tourney like that, but I always said that if I did I would use that pin system. Just seems logical and not very time consuming.

[crappiechappy]

You usually only have a couple of fish to weigh because in most cases you have 4 or 5 fish that you can tell by looking at that are bigger than everything else in the box. A good set of postal scales works great if they are waterproof. You need something that weighs in hundredths or thousandths to cull very similar fish. An oz. or 2 could mean the difference in several 100 $$$.

[sinkum]

i use a system similar to whiz you have to have a divided live well
in my opinon i weigh every fish that is caught an put my 7 largest
in i side i use colored diaper pins to tag my fish i keep my 3 smallest
fish in the other side which makes it easier to sort thru for the smallest
fish i think the floats with the snaps on them are to big for crappie
work fine for bass i dont like to keep to many fish in the livewell
at a time makes it harder to keep them alive i also treat my water
with stay alive i think thats what it is called it is in a green bottle
really good stuff i have seen it bring fish back from the dead it also
works good with minnows a good set of scales an a balance beam
are a must have

[Moose1am]

I would use this balance beam to determine which one of two fish is the heaviest.


http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...rTarget=browse

You could use a digital scales and measure and tag each fish and record the weight of each fish on the item below:

And these help you keep the fish that you want to weight in.

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...rTarget=browse

And to transport the fish to the weight in this will help:
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...rTarget=browse

You can make your own balance beam using some small chain and hooks and a piece of aluminum strip metal. Glue a small bubble level onto the metal in the right spot.

Take two 1lb weights and attach one to each side of the beam and make sure that the bubble is level as you hold them up.

The heaviest fish will pull the level down on it's side and you can quickly figure out which of the two fish is the heaviest.

I have never fished a crappie tournament, but the idea is pretty cool. My question is with a ten fish limit, how in the world do you keep track of which fish to cull as you catch more keepers. I could see it if you have a visibly smaller fish, but a box full of 10 similar sized fish, I just don't know.

How do you do it?

thanks,

Dayton

[TAE73]

We purchased a small postal scale from Mcmaster Carr. Which it weights up to 5 lbs. Which I hope to see a crappie max it out one day. It cost 70 bucks and runs on a 9v battery. Weights in the 10ths of onces, or in grams. We then use a small plastic basket to put the fish in. This to keep the scale from getting fish slim. Works good and is dang accurate, get your self a large hand gun case w/ foam liner to keep it in from getting bounced around in the boat or truck.

www.mcmaster.com page 1444