Before the advent of accurate fishing scales and fish-weighing devices, a typical answer was usually formulated by the unexacting science of pretend digits and irrational exaggeration. Many of you came to know this as "a fisherman's lie."
I was reading an item the other day, written by the late Bob Hood, a longtime outdoors writer, who said, "I didn't know what a De-Liar fish scale was until I turned my attention to largemouth bass and girls. I got one--a pair of De-Liars, that is--and quickly learned not to weigh a fish with them while a fishing buddy was looking on. Every fish weighs more after you have turned him loose--no exception."
There's a story about Lester Flatt, the well-known bluegrass musician, that has been told many times over the years, but it's still one well-worth remembering, especially if you have a fishing buddy who comes home often with a big-fish story.
Seems Flatt told the story about one of his fishing buddies who carried a pair of fish-weighing scales in his tackle box to "officialize" his catches of big bass. And the man was so particular that he never would let anyone else use those scales.
As Flatt told it, the neighbors who lived across the street from the fisherman had brought home a brand new baby two days earlier. Naturally, they were curious how much the baby weighed, but they didn't have any scales.
They asked the fisherman's wife if she had any scales they could borrow to weigh their new child. She didn't have any bathroom scales, but then she remembered her husband's fish-weighing scales, and she gave them to the new parents.
"They were astonished," said Flatt. "That new baby weighed 38 pounds!"
The new breed of weigh scales have advanced by leaps and bounds, now offering the user a quick and easy weight of that trophy catch. Best of all, they are accurate, and as much as it can hurt our angling pride when the reading is low, they help put the "truth" back into fishing again.
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