Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Trying to tell the age of BG from their scales

Does anyone have a GOOD example with a picture of the scale that was used to tell the age of a typical BG. I thought this would be straight forward but apparently NOT.

I'm looking at a half dozen scales from a 5" BG with a 15x loop and having great difficulty discerning the winter season rings. Is there something aout BG that make then difficult to read?

Thanks to anyone that can provide me with a good link with good photos on the issue.

Composite




LMB scale

If you can not get accurate reading. Matt here in the office can age with shipment of frozen fish then pop the otolith and do his thing. Gl

The BG scale should appear similar to the LMB scale in ewest's post above. LMB and BG are both in the sunfish family and scales will be pretty similar. Although the BG scale will be smaller in all respects which means the growth rings would be closer together esp if the fish is a slow grower. I assume a 15X loop is some sort of magnification device? For starters IMO, your magnification is not high enough. Scales for aging ideally should be collected from just above the back end of the pectoral fin.

OK thanks a bunch. Looks like I was taking the scales from the wrong location. Do you think 25x is enough magnification?

Also, is there a thread here with "normal" growth rates, or length vs weight relationships for the various species?

25X would be a minimum and 50-100X would be better depending on the size of the scale. I calculate ewest's LMB scale above is magnified around 50X. Scale reading is an art form and then often the read is inaccurate depending on several factors. Although sometimes the scale is in very good condition and growth marks are distinct as in ewest's example LMB scale above. Sometimes fish form false annuli on the scales. Ohio DNR learned this when going from reading scales to otoliths for Lk Erie walleye.

TMK, look in the archives. There is a thread on Relative Weights. There are charts for the different fish species. (weight vs. length)

Wow, I have spent a lot of time searching for "Relative Weights", "Weight vs length", "charts" "graph", and other key words and not finding anything. esshup, can you narrow the search criteria any for me?

Thanks

Key word searching often does not work well for me due to my technique. If as esshup suggests you go into the Common Pond Q&A Archives (Forum List) you can find this:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=160456#Post160456

I found this relative weight calculator online yesterday on the Purina website. It's a really handy way to do a quick calculation and you don't even have to think! What a bonus!

Go to forum main page. click on "Common Pond Q&A (archives). Look at the thread that is the 7th from the bottom on the first page that is titled "Relative Weight Charts".

Don't feel bad, I never have much luck using the search function on the forum. I have better luck going to google and searching for stuff and also having "Pond Boss" in the search criteria.

Thanks guys. Very helpful.

I have noticed that reading scales is difficult partly due to the translucent nature of the scale and problematic lighting effects. Has anyone tried a dye of any kind?