North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Didn't think a Daly River barra could shrink? I thought it would have grown 10mm in a year ...

Not the first time this has happened either.

Matt Flynn wrote:Didn't think a Daly River barra could shrink? I thought it would have grown 10mm in a year ...

od any more info , lost bit of her tail maybe

just goes to show how many meter fish might not be that size

There definitely are quite a few examples like this that have happened over the years and from what i'm aware some of those involved (this includes both those who made the first capture and those who made the recapture and asked the obvious question) have copped a fair bit of flack. What is very interesting here is that i think both captures where made during a major competition where both the captures would have had to have had pictures taken on a measure board to prove the catch.
A look at both photos should prove if fish are truly able to shrink in length or if other factors are the cause for the recorded reduction in size.

One measurement may have been done on a brag matt, them brag matts are nearly always short by 1 - 3 cms. No-one likes to admit this as it brings a lot of peoples fish under the magic mark.

Call it Mt Todd Syndrome

A look at both photos should prove if fish are truly able to shrink in length or if other factors are the cause for the recorded reduction in size.

Was just saying the other day how you could use Photoshop to reveal if a brag mat has been tampered.

But as Pony says, it could just be a piece off the tail. Sounds like there have been a few missing tails

Would be great to see the photos, do they archive them (can I smell smoke?)

Back when I used to fish the classic with my old man it was never a photo taken just an honesty system
We would always round down a cm to prevent any dramas later on and I know a few others used to as well we got the idea of Phil hall and rob gaden..
Only thing I could say for some Ofthe fish that are way out would be a mix up in tags to cards we used to have a small lunch box with the tags and cards in it wouldn't be hard to get one mixed up when in a rush or with a double hook up gets a bit hectic !!

Nocturnal is on the money !!!
After brag mat measurment came under question a quite a while ago, myself and a few mates checked all of ours against the same tape measure (that was checked against another one) and we found between 6 different mats from different brands had a difference of up to 8cms at 100cm mark from shortest to longest.
Mine at a meter is 3.5cms short and it is shimano one (reasonly new at the time) after typing this I might go check it again now it's a couple of years old.
Everyone should check theirs against a tape measure or 100cm rule. You might find a few peoples 1m+ fish are just short.

Surely the big comps now use standardised measures? Big money at stake, and reputations, you would want something calibrated, or at least the same for all.

Yep even when we fished it they had a standard measure board each team got one pretty sure te classic still has them on an alloy measure stick

During the middle of the day in the sun your brag mat will be at its longest !!

You guys.....When has a fisherman ever told the real size of a fish...bl..dy obvious to me

And don't forget the grog

I'm not at all surprised.

As well as the factors above sometimes it comes down to the care taken on measuring & whether the fish is straight on the board/mat. The Nats & Classic use boards supplied for the comps to help prevent the Brag mat sagas. The fact it was tagged would indicate it was probably first measured in the Classic (the photos are archived) but the recapture many have been by a Rec angler.

If a fish was caught in the nationals the rounding goes up if the fish only just goes over the cm mark

ie if the fish is 995mm the fish is registered as 1m I believe, unless the rules have changed. Is it possible the fish hasn't grown but some have rounded up and the other down?

Mouth open on the fish will give a longer fish too!

Only other possibility is The fish has ostiperosis and has bone degeneration!