Certified scales

[tank3544]

anyone know where you can take your personal scale to have it verified and/or certified?

reason i'm asking is i input the length and girth of that 65 i caught the other day and this calculator dealy is telling me 73lbs .. i'm ticked that my scale may have cost me my first 70lb fish and i want it fixed! on the other hand my scale could be right and these online calculators are bogus and i want to know!

while we're on the subject anyone know a REAL certified scale around deep bottom, jordan point or anywhere in between and a number to call to get someone from game and fish to verify the catch?

[spin-a-bait]

Length and girth measurements are Approximate weights.....that 63 you caught looks alot bigger than the 65.....

[mini moe]

Tank,
Don't know where to get scales certified, but when we suspect our scales being off, we weigh something of the same weight. So if you can get say work out weights or something you know for sure weighs 65lbs. Then you can tell, provided you haven't moved you zero setting. What's that formular for weight and girth. I use to know it but have forgotten it.

[Blackielee]

Don't know for sure, but have been told Green Top can get it done. Also heard that they sell certified scales.

[tank3544]

i gotta tell ya in the boat the 65 sure looked bigger .. in fact we barely got the fish in the net and if i remember correctly my wife easily got the 63 in and she had NO idea what she was doing

guess it dosen't really matter .. one big fish deserves another [excited]

[willis]

If you are using spring scales i find them to be inaccurate. The digitals are the way to go. I certify scales in the medical field and checked my scales with a fifty pound certified weight and they are within two ounces. Tank let me know next time we hit the water on the same day ill bring one of the certified weights with me from work so you can check your scales.

[RANGER690]

I took my 50# Berkley scale to work. We have certified weights. I hung the scale and went from 10 to 70 (yes, 70 on a 50 scale). They were not far off. I used a silver sharpie and wrote the coresponding numbers on the back.

Ex. Actual 50 reads 50.8
Actual 70 read 68.7

I would be glad to take yours in if you want.

Dayton

[tank3544]

willis, ranger sounds great .. whichever one of you i run into first i guess

mine is a spring scale .. the 100lb digital models are sorta out of my price range

[striperjoe32]

they have a 100lb spring scale (in gold) under the counter at GreenTop that the guy -Jeff-says is VERY ACCURATE. If i get one 90+, i'm gonna keep him alive and call the DGIF. The scale is 149.95 at GreenTop and worth every penny - i just decided I didn't want to spend that many pennies ! ! ! !
Team Cannonball will be out Sat and Sun - Flag us down, I"ll be on My Time - with my dad ! [excited]

[javelin99]

I guess it dose not matter how far my scale is off becuase I never catch anything worth weighung[grin][grin].Spin-a-Bait.....PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!

[Gottheblues]

don't waste your money on the gold chattilon scales. They have a new design on them and they break fairly easy. I've been through two. They shouldn't break when they cost that much money. They have good warranties but I got tired of taking mine back.

There are a few places in Chesterfield that can certify scales for you but I lost the numbers. They were weights and measure places. I believe I found them via the yellow pages. I'll do some research and see if I can find the numbers again. You can also send your scale to IGFA(you have to be a member) and they will do it for you. The most simpliest thing to do is to just go up to Fin and Skin or some other bait shop and just compare your scale to theirs.....just weigh different pound items to see if there are any variances.

The length and girth formula is not that great when doing bigger fish. Some fish can have huge heads and girth but then be skinny in the tail. I've noticed that a lot of weight can be added if your fish is thick all the way to the tail.

[Capt.Neil Renouf]

Agree with GTB, I have 3 sets of chattilons 6lb/50lb and 100lb catfish bounce around and break off pin, but I can still read where pin use to be, they are very accurate however (not certified but I match the weight within 1/2 pound at 70lbs. You have to be a store to have certified scales for weighing fish. The closet you can do is send them to the IGFA and they will certify every year......speaking of which on thursday- 39lbs 40 1/2" on Stren 4lb test.

[joe e.]

I bought a 50 and a hundred pound set for about 30 dollars each and called a callibration firm and was told about $100 for the testing. Ended up mailing scales to IGFA in florida who did certification for $10. Both scales were accurate.Turn around time a couple days. To qualify for world records cheap scales have to be checked out each year though.

[wasabi]

Ditto on the inaccurate spring scales. We went through this last year when I was frustrated with my Shimano spring scale. My berkely 50 lb. digital was accurate up to 90 pounds. I did what dayton did.

[tank3544]

so the berkely 50lb jobby not only reads to 90 but is accurate to 90?

hell maybe i should pick up one of these and skip this whole mess (besides dayton verifying mine too[grin])

[tank3544]

i see berkley also offers a 65lb digital model .. any word on how high that one truly reads and how accurate it is?

also is that 50lb model guaranteed to read up to 90 or does it just do that for a few of them?

[willis]

That berkely 50lb is wahat i have been using and it is very accurate and only cost about 30.00 and has some special long life battery built in. After a while i just dont even weigh them anymore unless they are obviously worth weighing.

[Big Fish Addict]

If I remember correctly, you can send your scale to the I.G.F.A. and they can certify it for a small fee.
That scale under the counter at Greentop is nice, but its under the counter for a reason. Its expensive.
Bill

[wasabi]

the berkely 50 is listed as just a 50 pound scale. I just had a lot of 10 lb. weights laying around so I kept going past 50. I have not tested the 65 pound model.

[Blackielee]

Hey Bill, glad to see you found the board. A lot of catfish tales here. You may want to do some searches. Lots of good info and pics at times.[wink]

[Big Fish Addict]

Hey Blackie Lee,
Thanks for the tip. This is a great site. Been reading past posts.
Bill