Nate first this is common. I should not be surprised there are crooks in this industry b/c you really do have to put trust in your fish guy. I hope folks trust me b/c I do not charge enough for me to stand around and count the fish, it is based on weight. If water is tempered I just weigh out the amount and they have to trust me. Only a few times have I been accused of not having done what I said. I explained it to them and for the most part have not had issues.

Now, did you physically count the first few batches thus the last stop was to get the remainder not requiring conting of them? I have done this b/f myself and then when loading realized oh no this does not look right only to findout I got shorted on pickup and the last stop did not have his fish. I then of course weigheed and refigured and had to go back for another visit to finish off his fish. SOO if he did have less and was trying to dump what was there quickly I can see that happening.

To your question if a true 2-3 inch redear they should weigh about 18-34 lbs/1000. so you should have gotten about 42 lbs. We can get in a slam full bucket with 1.8 gals of water ( 15 lbs) 20 lbs of fish. So with 1 gal and 75% full I would guess you might have 15 lbs of fish (~578 fish). So 30 lbs total seems a little light of the 1,600 more like 1,200 fish. So many variables and if he has proven to be honorable in the past he might have had the full 1,600. Also if the fish were running small you probably got them all. If running big doubt it. Use this info how you will and hope you can trust this guy. I would talk with him and explain any time you use him in the future clients need to see the fish and you will volunteer to help weigh/count and then see what he says.

Greg Grimes
www.lakework.com