Striper Size Chart

There have been some big fish caught in the spring over the years and many people believe that if a lake record is to be caught on Lanier, this is the time of year it will happen. After doing a little math, I concur. Lets use this chart for reference.

Now lets compare some fish that have been caught over the years with this chart. First, lets list some fish that have been caught in the "spring" just prior to their spawning run.

1) Friday, March 27th 2009. A Striper measuring 44 inches tipped the scales at 43 lbs. That's 4 lbs OVER the "max" according the chart above.

2) Rick landed a fish back on March 15th 2009 that measured out at 39 inches and 31 lbs (maybe 32 lbs). Again, that's 3.8-4.8 lbs OVER the "max" listed on this chart.

3) Last year on April 12th 2008 Rick landed another big fish that wieighed in at 32 lbs and measured out at 40" long. This fish was 2.5 lbs OVER the "max" listed on the chart.

4) On April 15th 2008, Shane Watson recorded a fish landed that weighed in at 35 lbs and was 42" long. This fish was 1.5 lbs OVER the "max".

Clearly big fish caught in the spring seem to be bigger. All four of the above fish were caught just prior to their spring spawn run; all weighed in above the "max" for their lengths according to the chart above.

Now what about summer time fish? This is when I've boated some big fish. The local biologists claim Striped Bass tend to loose weight during the summer months. Lets see what the data says. Here are some numbers from the last two years.

1) July 29th, 2008. We boated a fish that measured out to be 39" and weighed 28 lbs. According to the scale, this is .8 of a lb OVER the "max".

2) August 13th, 2008. Jonathan jigged his 31 lb'er that measured out to be 42" long. That's 2.5 lbs UNDER the "max" listed on the chart.

3) August 6th, 2007. Jonathan boats his 26 lb'er that measured out to be 38" long. That's .5 lb's OVER the "max" listed on the chart.

4) August 3rd, 2007. Jonathan boats his 21 lb'er that measures out to be 37" long. That's right in the middle, about 2.5 lbs UNDER the max on the chart; just .3 lbs over the average (20.7).

5) August 14th, 2006. Jonathan boats his first "mountable" Striper. At 16.5 lbs and 35" long, it comes in just UNDER average. The chart says 15.5 lbs minimum – 18 lbs average for this length.

6) August 29th, 2006. I boat my 33 lb'er which measures out to be 42" long. It's .5 lbs UNDER the "max" listed on the chart.

7) August 29th, 2006. I boated my monster 42 lb'er which measured out to be 46". This fish was 2 lbs UNDER the "max" listed on the chart.

As a numbers guy, I wouldn't declare this data as showing anything significant. Clearly we'd need a lot more fish caught to establish any clear "weight to length" seasonal pattern. That being said, it does appear that fish caught in the spring are "over" sized or heavy, which only stands to reason given the circumstances this time of year. As summer sets in, the weight seems to drop off these big fish and by the middle of August, it looks as though the big fish we're catching are well within the weights listed on the above chart. Using these numbers, I can now extrapolate that my big fish, caught at the end of August in 2006, would have weighed over 46 lbs if caught in March of April since the "max" weight for this length is listed at 44 lbs. The weights of all the fish caught in the spring have been way over the "max" so it only stands to reason my 46" easily could have been 4 lbs over if not 5 or 6. Having noted this "trend", I think I now have a justifiable reason why I need to spend more time on the lake in the spring. Now lets see if I can convince the Wife using this logic…..