I'm on the lookout for some new scales - not that I'm unhappy with my trusty Waymasters - but I've been catching some clonking dace recently and want something (possibly digital) that will weigh accurately down to the nearest ¼oz (preferably nearest dram!). Any recommendations out there?

I wonder what Dennis Flack uses?


C.

Dennis uses high precision scales such as used in chemistry. There was an article in Anglers Mail about him some months ago.

Digitals are good, some are excellent, but some weigh in tenths of a pound, and tenths of a tenth so, unless you go metric, you need to watch which ones that you buy.

My Salter Electro Sampsons are great and weigh in both metric and pounds and ounces. Not waterproof but when I drowned a set Salter changed them without hesitation. Service without fault!

Chris,

Cheapest Salter Electro Samsons I can find are in the £70 range, they do get very good reviews, but a bit out of my price range.

I've been looking at these, Rapala ProGuide Digital Scales, the BassPro shop has got a decent deal on them, and with the current exchange rate it could be quite a bargain. Not sure what increments they weigh in though, trying to find out.

Paul

I remember from a similar thread to this that Rapala's are a bit hit and miss. I had the basic digital Rapala's and they only lasted a couple of months before failing. Jeepster tells me his are/were faultless but I was put off buying a new set. I've got myself a set of Berkley digitals via Ebay and so far so good.

You have something of a dilemma if you want to weigh down to 1/4oz (6 grams). Non digital scales will be difficult/impossible to read down to that level, even supposing they were accurate in the first place

I have the Salter Samsons. Not cheap but as accurate as you're likely to get according to my local Trading Standards officer who checked them out for me. However they weigh 55lb in 1/2 oz increments (or 25k in 20 gram increments) and you might find that a bit coarse. The Rapalas read down in 1oz or 10 gram increments and are good value for money at around £35. The small Fladen scales are cheaper and weigh down to 5 grams (equates to just under 1/4oz) At £25 they may be inaccurate, but if so digital scales tend to be uniformly inaccurate, so if I had to have scales that read in very small increments, I'd take a chance on the Fladen and figure out what the error factor is with small known weight leads. You can get the Fladen and the Rapala from tacklebargains and put a quid or two in Eltons pocket at the same time


http://www.tacklebargains.co.uk/acatalog/F...ing_Scales.html

my rapalas are still going strong, but unfortunately, dont go down as fine as a dram...... or for that matter 1/4 oz

Have you guys ever found problems with digital scales.
I have always been wary of them ever since, at the weigh in for a match, I was given a reading of 3lbs. My net included two tench of 3 lbs each and around 4lbs of bits. We re-weighed the catch 4 times but the highest weight achieved was 6lbs and obviously this was still wrong. Two people who clearly had weights of less than 6lbs were given weights in excess of 7lbs. Unlike the usual mechanical scales when these went wrong there was no consistency. It may just be that these scales were poorly looked after but it was enough to make me sceptical of digital scales ever since.

PS
If you realy wanted an accurate (if Impracticle) set of scales the old bar and weight scales that used to be employed on matches on the London canals were deemed to be extremely accurate in the right hands.
And if you go down the digital kitchen scale route you might need a spirit level as they may not be accurate off-level.

Never had a problem with my Samson scales and they get checked regularly.

There are some fairly dodgy spring balances out there, as a cynical scan of pics in the angling press will testify.

Worm makes a good point about the old-fashioned beam balance being the most accurate - from the article Chris Plumb refers to, it seems Denis Flack uses a refined form of that - a good chemical balance.

For anyone doubting the accuracy of their spring balance when miles from anywhere, it can easily be checked if you carry your bait in a bucket.

Calibrate your bucket in Pints at home, using a domestic pint measure and an indelible marker pen.

Now you can check any balance from the simple fact that a gallon of water weighs ten pounds.

..or put another way:-

"A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter"

Set the spring balance to zero with the empty bucket.

Dip your bucket.(take the bait out first ). Pour water out till the level is an exact number of pints.

Weigh it.