I'm sure this must have been discussed before but....

I've read many posts that say something like "cull fish less than 90% Wr." My question is....is relative weight alone a good criteria to make the decision on whether the fish is a keeper or not?

My problem....If a female LMB measures at 95% prespawn, she is a keeper. Post spawn she measure 85% and she doesn't make the cut? If I catch a LMB that hasn't eaten today and measures 88% but I catch the same LMB after breakfast an hour later with a nice BG in its stomach.....

A male CC weighs more than a female of equal length and health but the Wr charts don't differentiate between the sexes.

Are there other criteria that can be applied, in addition to Wr, to help identify healthy and desirable fish?

My guess... I think wherever you put the cutoff, there will always be fish barely on one side or the other. By being 10% under 100% there is a slot built into for marginal fish. A few marginal fish will get lucky because they just ate, or full of eggs, but very few.

Wr is a guide line and can be used to judge the growth of a fish. It will tell you if there is the right amount of forage for a fish to grow. Low Wr/Rw means the weight for the length of the fish did not have the right size or the right number of forage to eat. If a fish is under weight it means you need more forage. There are exceptions to the rule, like when a fish is in poor condition due to other factors, blind in one eye or the fish or maybe stunted, big head or head to close to the tail . Your personal experience (go with your gut feeling) around the fish you are growing will also give some clues whether to cull or not to cull, that is the question sometimes answered from ones experience. Hope this helps

Bill,

My 2 cents:

I think you might be looking at this backwards. Your are only going to interact with a small percentage of the fish in your pond unless it is very small and drainable. That said, in my mind, I am " influencing" the population of my fish. If I find an under weight fish it is pulled. I use 105% for fish over 15 inches most of the time, but post spawn, I leave the fish alone for a few weeks allowing them to recover some. The best stay, and the rest are pulled. For fish under 15 inches, they are pulled unless they are rockstar fish. I find that I toss back one in 10-15 small LMB due to their status. In Pondboss magazine a few years back, I read LMB can repopulate/overpopulate a BOW in one season, that is a lot of new mouths to feed. Active management IS the only way I know to maintain close to the middle.

If I doubt myself, I just call Allen and ask how his fish are doing after fixing his BOW with active management.

So in short, "When is doubt, pull it out" seems to be working for me.

These days I tend to use Wr as an indicator of habitat. I still get a charge out of a bluegill over 150%, but I get a bigger thrill from seeing several fish at 135%. There will always be shooters and under performers within a population, so I look for an average. If I can establish that, I may then cull the underachievers no matter what Wr they are....if they can't make the average.

Can't help posting this. I am about 1.35 WR. I guess I'm a throw back.

This approach makes a lot of sense to me. Use Wr as a tool for comparison of fish within the BOW not as an absolute number for management. I can see where calculating the average Wr for an individual pond provides insight into how that pond is doing compared to other BOWs while providing appropriate criteria for identifying and culling under performers in that particular pond.

Dave "A throwback" That's what I've herd from the guys that know u Pretty sure they want to keep u around

Good question. There are several measures of whole pond status. RW is one as is PSD. RW is a tool not an answer. It is not a complete answer to the one fish question. It is possible for a 90% fish to be one of the best in the pond. It is an average with limits on its application. The average alone can be suspect for a particular area. There are opinions about that different regions should have different RW scales.

For LMB ponds it is often said cull the suggested amount then cull 25% more.

Me too Dave!

I don't think optimum relative weights for fish translate well to humans.

Great question!
For largemouth bass, relative weight measurement is one tool in your fisheries management tool box. The "standard" curve on an x-y graph is called standard because it represents more than 300,000 bass weighed and measured during three decades. But, that curve doesn't necessarily represent "normal" fish for any given lake or pond. "Normal" can range 5-8% on each side of that curve, depending on the season.
Relative weight can be interpreted as a reflection of habitat, but not necessarily of a function of habitat. For example, if I'm feeding channel catfish in a pond with zero habitat, I expect a high Wr, no matter what. If not, I'm not feeding enough, or I have too many fish.
For day to day management of a bass lake, always remember what ewest referenced above...harvest is a big deal.
I'll never forget the first time I met Ray Scott, considered by many in Bass fishing circles to be the originator of "catch and release". We were at a fishing show near Dallas. We met, and I asked, "Do you REALLY believe in 'catch and release'?" He said, "In public lakes, yes! But, in my lake, we remove as many as I think we should, then I double it and take out that many more!" In other words, in his mature lake, harvest is of great importance, especially since his goal is to grow big fish.
For this question, I'd say to mix some common sense with the numbers. If you catch a bass and there's any doubt as to whether you harvest or release it, release it. If you want other ways to judge your fish, look at subtle things, too. Look at the width/thickness of the caudal peduncle, the thickness of the flesh around the tail section. If it's thin, harvest. Look at its shoulders. If that area is shaped like an upside down "U", consider releasing it. If it looks like an upside down "V", cull it. Judge the flesh along the backbone. Thick is good, thin isn't. And, as simple as it sounds, you can weigh a thin fish with a big meal in its belly and think since it's so close to the curve, you should release it.
If you have a fishery with some age, make it a point to harvest fish that you think aren't performing. I can't tell you how many times we come across new clients, with overcrowded bass populations, and they don't understand how important it is to take as many fish as they can. A six or eight year old bass, that is twelve inches long, won't grow much larger than four or five pounds. Culling, in that case, means harvesting as many fish as you can, and depend on younger fish to become the faster growing fish with the best potential.
Lastly, combine relative weights and percentage size distribution, with some common sense as your basis to decide which fish to cull.
Better yet, do it like you want.

Thanks everybody! I feel a lot more comfortable moving into 2017 harvest.

Good luck...post photos!