So the other day we’re on the river with a livewell limit full. I began to wonder if my 50+ gallon well weighed more full of water only or walleye and water. Anyone? Anyone?
I realize the buoyancy and mass factor in, but if i have 10 walleye’s I have less water. BUT…. with water at 8.333 lbs. per gallon and the walleye’s averaging 2-4 lbs.
Do the fish weigh anything since water promotes weightlessness?
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Do the fish weigh anything since water promotes weightlessness?
The fish still weigh something. It’s their air bladder which allows them to suspend. The size of the walleye reduces the volume of water. So it pretty much comes down to which weighs more (per volume/mass). If a walleyes weight weighs more than water (which I doubt) the combination will weigh more. If walleye weigh less than water than the combo will weigh less.
If you watch the new FLW weigh-in at the tournaments they now weigh the walleye in water. They can accurately weigh these fish due to their weight even while suspended in water.
No physics major here, but I’m guessing the water + walleye would weigh a little less that straight water. If they’re like us we’re only 90% water 
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You want to REALLY be confused? Which weighs more… 1 pound of walleye or 1 pound of water? 
X=(YZ%-8.33)+X-Z(R2D2=3CPO)/AB*CD=XYZ
I would say by my guess the walleye and water way 14.5% more then the water alone.
Your formula looks good except for the (R2D2=C3PO) ???
Shouldn’t it be (R2D2*2=C3PO)? !
If a fish needs to inflate its air bladder to give it neutral bouyancy, then it would sink if not inflated enough. That would make fish heavier than water so it would weigh more. I think most fish keep themselve at slightly under neutral bouyancy and sink slowly when not finning to keep up. If the fish were exactly neutrally bouyant then the fish + water would weigh the same as the water alone.
I hope you have at least one other angler with you with 10 walleyes in the livewell!
I’m under the belief that the reason we have flooding on the river is because not enough people are fishing it. Take the lakes up north, we hardly ever hear of them going out of their banks !!! The fish displace water thus causing floods ! 
rmartin- good point but if your theory is true then I’m SUPER confused as to how these fish are being weighed while suspending in water??? 
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Does the new weigh in calculate the walleye’s weight based off the amount of water they displace? Maybe they start off with the same amount of water before each bag comes to the scales and measures the height of the water?
Is that an accurate measument though? I still think they use the walleye’s actual weight reguardless of if they’re floating or not…
Check out these photos on the scales…
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You must know the specific gravity of a walleye. Anyone, anyone?
If you guys really would like to know the answer I know how to figure it out.
Take a bucket completely full of water and put a catch pail under it. Submerse a walleye into the bucket. The water that spills out of the bucket should be the same volume as the walleye. Now weigh the walleye and the spilled out water. Which ever weighs more has more mass.
It will be interesting to find out the answer. I think water alone will weigh more.
Im pretty sure your right lenny, dry bone mass dosen’t weigh as much as water. There are only so many cubic inches in a givin area. Even though a fish has a high pecentage of water like humans they and we have mass that weights less than water like dry bone and the solids that make up the fishes and our tissue. In a givin area if some of this tissue and bone mass takes up any of that area that area will weigh less than if it was 100% water. A 5 gallon bucket of dry fish bone, scales and tissue weights less than a 5 gallon bucket of water.
Heres is the way they must weigh the walleyes in water or anything they put in there. They must first weigh the container with the water. Then they add the fish one by one and take a weight on each one. The diffrence from the first measured weight and the second is the weight of the fish. As they add one fish at a time they get a weight, after a five fish weighin they have the begining weight or the container and water. As they add each fish that raises the container weight one fish at a time. They total all the measured weights in that container and thats the total of the fish they entered. Subtract the weight of just the container and water from the total of container, water and fish and you have the weight of the total catch.
pie are round and cake are square Beyond that it’s all greek to me. 
Lol! thats funny Rock! 
sounds like it has something to do with Archimedes principal, which if you believe my old 6th grade scinece teacher, said a cast iron bathtub should float.
dave
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