How accurate are your scales?

[Kappa]

I have to agree IMO its often not the scales that are inaccurate but the people using them!

 

"and a pound for the net / sling" etc is my least favourite phrase in the world!

 

Those that use that huge carp style mats / slings are the worst, a dry one can weigh a few ounces a soaking wet one over 3lbs. Unless it is zeroed AFTER weighing the fish its not accurate. I have seen very very experienced anglers get their weight out by >20% (i.e. a 10lb fish plus minus 2lbs) doing this nevermind a few ounces!

 

If anyone follows Freakenomics you could look at this way. The is almost no cost to exagerating the weights of your fish. You will almost never get caught and even photos are near impossible to estimate weight from (unless its a known fish). However the benefits of claiming bigger and better fish to friends and the mags etc etc are pretty clear. Therefore there is a real market pressure to overreport the weight of fish.

 

When all is said an done it doesn't really matter much to me. If my scales a few ounces light or heavy its OK (last time I checked they were around an ounce light), I'm not trying to impress anyone with the weights of my fish its a personal record, so as long as the scales are consistent over time a new PB is a new PB regardless of the exact weight. Unless I saw a fish weighed my normal assumption is it was likely wrong.

 

However just for fun I will look for a bag of sugar at home later!

 

Rich

I have to agree IMO its often not the scales that are inaccurate but the people using them!

 

"and a pound for the net / sling" etc is my least favourite phrase in the world!

 

Those that use that huge carp style mats / slings are the worst, a dry one can weigh a few ounces a soaking wet one over 3lbs. Unless it is zeroed AFTER weighing the fish its not accurate. I have seen very very experienced anglers get their weight out by >20% (i.e. a 10lb fish plus minus 2lbs) doing this nevermind a few ounces!

 

If anyone follows Freakenomics you could look at this way. The is almost no cost to exagerating the weights of your fish. You will almost never get caught and even photos are near impossible to estimate weight from (unless its a known fish). However the benefits of claiming bigger and better fish to friends and the mags etc etc are pretty clear. Therefore there is a real market pressure to overreport the weight of fish.

 

When all is said an done it doesn't really matter much to me. If my scales a few ounces light or heavy its OK (last time I checked they were around an ounce light), I'm not trying to impress anyone with the weights of my fish its a personal record, so as long as the scales are consistent over time a new PB is a new PB regardless of the exact weight. Unless I saw a fish weighed my normal assumption is it was likely wrong.

 

However just for fun I will look for a bag of sugar at home later!

 

Rich

[Anderoo]

I've never had my scales calibrated so couldn't say whether they're 100% accurate or not; I expect that somewhere along the weight range they are not. But like Rich I weigh fish for myself and my own personal reasons, I don't try to win prizes and I am not at all bothered if someone disbelieves what I claim a fish weighs.

 

I use a second-hand set of 40lb Avons for all my fishing, even though they rarely get to spin round past 10lb. They have 1oz increments with gaps between, and are as accurate as I feel I need my scales to be. I've tested them before against other anglers' scales and they've always been within an ounce or 2 of them.

 

I suppose it might be that they weigh slightly light or slightly heavy but all my fish are weighed on them, so they are at least consistent with each other.

 

As Steve says, how scales hang has a big effect on accuracy; one good thing with the Avons is that it's impossible to hold them incorrectly.

 

It might seem like overkill to have scales up to 40lb when I mostly fish for the smaller species, but a few times I've had a surprise and I've been glad of the extra scope (e.g. a big carp while tench fishing).

[ayjay]

I did tests with two weights and three sets of scales: I have a set of kitchen scales which I now use in the studio to weigh clay, they are dial scales (so basically a spring balance), a modern digital set currently in use in the kitchen, and my Berkley digital fishing scales.

 

First I weighed a ceramic pot on the dial scales, these have to be zeroed by hand and read off the scale so slightly open to error there.

 

1250 g or 2lb 12oz (it has both weights marked around the dial).

1249 g and 2lb 12oz on the digital kitchen scales (it's switchable between the two)

2.7lb = 2lb 11.2 oz on the Berkelys - (it weighs in decimal pounds)

 

Next test was a bottle of water, starting on the kitchen digis and adjusted until it weighed exactly 1000 g

 

1000 g - 2lb 3.3oz digital kitchen scales

990 g - 2lb 3oz on the dial scales

2.2lb = 2lb 3.2oz on the Berkley scales.

 

I'd say that's close enough for me.

[Mat Hillman]

As a diabetic I don't have sugar in the house

 

will try the litre of water if I can find a suitable container!

 

Mat

[JV44]

Mine are useless and have thrown them out I mean they registered 13st3lb before chrimbo and 13st 11lb today

[Anderoo]

After the fun of trying to get home through the floods last night I'm working from home today, and so took the opportunity to do some scale checks. I used 1 litre of water, measured out as carefully as I could, which should weigh 1kg or 2.2lb. I tested both my Avons and the old Rapala digis, which I still have lying around. I hung the scales on a long sturdy nail in the shed so there was no wind and no hand shaking to mess up the results, and a small bucket was hung on and the scales zero'd before pouring in the water. The results were:

 

Avons - 2lb 1oz

Digis - 1lb 14oz

 

So both are weighing light, an oz in the case of the Avons (the only ones I use) and 4oz for the digis.

 

An oz out is OK for me, and I'm glad they're light rather than heavy. I just hope now I don't catch a 1lb 15oz roach 4oz out is not acceptable, but I already knew those scales are crap.

 

EDIT: I would like to repeat the phrase 'measured out as carefully as I could' - it's possible that it wasn't exactly a full litre of water as I used a kitchen measuring jug that has quite thick marker lines. I measured to the bottom of the line (2 lots of half a litre), maybe I should have measured to the top. I think with any kind of home test you have to allow for some variance whatever weight you use, the only definite way to check is to go to a proper weights and measures place.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Anderoo

[JV44]

Serious post time I measured as accurately as poss 1 litre and got a Avon reading of 2 lb 1 oz same as Anderoo`s Avons

[snakey1]

Was the water de-inoised or tap ? what was the temperature and did you take the local value of g into account

[Anderoo]

Was the water de-inoised or tap ? what was the temperature and did you take the local value of g into account

 

Exactly!

[Rusty]

EDIT: I would like to repeat the phrase 'measured out as carefully as I could' - it's possible that it wasn't exactly a full litre of water as I used a kitchen measuring jug that has quite thick marker lines. I measured to the bottom of the line (2 lots of half a litre), maybe I should have measured to the top. I think with any kind of home test you have to allow for some variance whatever weight you use, the only definite way to check is to go to a proper weights and measures place.

 

That was the point of the thread really, be it a bag of sugar or a jug of water it's difficult enough to even determine at home how accurate scales are and that's where at least you have control over some of the variables. Throw in the excitement of weighing a big fish having just caught it and all the additional variables which come with weighing bankside and to be honest most quoted weights (including mine) can be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

Weights add context to a photo much like the inclusion of a reel or some other scaling item but that's as far as it goes for me. In relative terms I like to know if a fish is a PB and using the same scales all of the time will probably do that but even then there's a lot of things that can scew weights from one session to another.