Looking for a weight on this Flathead.

Mark, can you fill us in on the details?

It’s funny! Dan Thiem and I had pants that looked just like yours after he landed his 57.7.

Another…a true…trophy pig!

It’s hard to tell with just one angle…it’s belly is hidden, but my uneducated guess would be….

50 lbs…no more than 55, ’cause she’s long and skinny.

No matter what she weighs… there’s only a couple fish of that size caught each year.

That had to be a great fight! I’ve never caught one near that size. Whats it like? Do they roll alot and try to break water,then run to the bottom. If you were there, how about some details on fighting that pig.

No weight?

No meausurements?

Gill hold. OUCH!!(to the Fish)

Looks like these guys hit the jackpot. I bet next time they will be a little better prepared if Big Flats are what they are fishing for.

I’ll give it a 43-45lbs.

Great looking fish Mates!!!

Thats an *honest* 50# fish there(without a scale). Without seeing the belly there is really no way to guess any more accurately. It could have more girth, but its still a thick fish.

Its really hard to guess.. not knowing how tall the fisherman is, the picture is held out in front and the only accurate background is his knee and below to compare length.. and its really hard to hold a super heavy fish up in the air in front of you.. not many of us could hold a deep cycle battery up at arms length in front of our face. The fish extended in front of his face with little stress look on his face.. the fish was probably closer to the 50# mark, but every time I look at the picture I think its less than that. 45#? Its a great picture of a big fish and I think its sticking out in the camera just right.

Its a big *bleep* fish either way!

Its amazing how a camera angle when shooting from down to up and a gill hold (Makes the Head look extra Broad) can make a fish look Really Large.
Unfortunately we all can speculate all we want ,but with out some measurements, its impossible to accurately determine (with in less than 10lbs)
I still tip my hat to the Guy that landed it. It could go anywhere between 40-50lbs possibly
Its a Beauty Mate!

Last note:
To the Gentleman that caught this fish. We are in no way minimizing your catch. It is a Trophy.
Die Hard Flat fisherman are always trying to gather as much detailed info on every large catch, because of the variables that come into play in trying to determine accurate weights, and because there is so little scientific data on these fish. In light of the issue that there are many out there ready to make up a Fish story.
Obviously not the case in this situation
Just some serious discussion, dialogue and learning.
Congrats on the fish, thanks for sharing a pic.

Mark gave me some info…but no weight…I’m thinking he’ll be on after the holiday.

I concur on a mid 40s fish, lower end of mid 40s.

Doesn’t have the girth through the midsection to put it much larger IMO.

Now if the angler had a seriously strained look on his face, I would maybe give him more weight. Facial expression is very important when hefting a major league flatty in front of you.

Must be a Mighty Miss fish, its a dark grey one.

The mouth is HUGE, and the angle of his arm says he’s not extending it front of him very much……I think it could be 50 plus……

Where is this Dude……?

OK….Here is the story. I caught this in 1998 or 1999. We were fishing on the St. Croix north of Prescott and south of St. Croix Falls and we were fishing for cats, just didnt have a scale and definitely didnt want to kill the fish just to get it weighed. If I remember right it was 54″ long?? and the girth was 28″??(its been a while). Here is the great part of this story: as with all cat fisherman you want as many lines as possible so I casted my walleye rod out with 8lbs test for my third line….and that is the presentation he wanted. It didnt really fight as hard as you would think it would for that size, but once it saw the light from the boat it almost spooled me. Im pretty sure it would have been a line class record if I had it officially weighed. But thats ok… We were using 7-8 inch sucker minnows with a bell sinker AND a small grape sized bobber to keep him off the bottom and active. We doubled our runs when we starting doing that. We also caught a 30-35lbs that night too.

I guessed him to be over 50# but really didnt have anything to compare it to. I dont leave home with out the scale(de-liar) now.

Thanks for the good comments! it’s always fun to tell your best fish stories.

Mark Johnson

“Swerv”

Quote:

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just didnt have a scale and definitely didnt want to kill the fish just to get it weighed.

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Great Fish, and Thanks for the story. Gotta love a guy who is more concerned with the welfare of the fish, then he is with a line class record

Great story Mate!!
Those measurements if as close as you recall. Could put the fish in the 50lb class. I bet that was quite a feeling with the light rod and the sound of your drag peeling out,out,out,out,out.
thanks for sharing details.

Well, based on measurements given, I may have to give more credit to that fish. I know of a certain someone who caught a 48lb Flathead with a 44″ length x 28″ girth. Now the girth on the fish in question is the same as the girth of the fish I mentioned, but the length is 8″ longer.

Are we looking at something over 60lb? You wouldn’t have to twist my arm all that hard now.