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Best Digital Fish Scale

Best Digital Fish Scale (Because Fish Photos Lie)

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If you want your buddies to actually believe your fish stories, you can’t just show them a photo, especially on social media. Think about those big fish pictures you see on Facebook. The first jealous comments are nearly always “fake”, “photoshop”, or “hold it a little closer to the camera why don’t you”. You know what doesn’t like though? The scale doesn’t lie. Getting photographic evidence of your catch on a top digital fish scale goes a long way to silence the doubters.

See our #1 Digital Scale pick on Amazon

We’re talking about quality fish weighing scales in this article, not cheap ones that will break or fail to turn on in 6 months. The bigger the fish you catch, the better your digital scale needs to be. The best digital fish scale will last many years and weigh a few cubic shed loads of fish. Here are some digital fish scale reviews to give you an idea of the top options available to you.

Factors to Look for in a Digital Fishing Scale

  • Weight Range: Inside every electronic fishing scale is a device called a load cell. The load cell is what senses and measures the weight of the fish hanging off the clip. You will want to choose a scale that has a weight range that covers the size of your intended species. If you catch mostly largemouth bass weighing around 5 pounds, then you don’t really want to get a scale with a range up to 50 pounds. For bass, a 15 pound digital handheld scale is perfect.
  • Attachment Mechanism: Most cheap digital fish scales have a simple circle shaped hook for you to slide under the fish’s gill plate. The problem with that is fish like to flop around, especially when they are under some stress and want to get back in the water. Fish like smallmouth bass will slip off the hook pretty easily. Fish with teeth can come undone and cut your hands. Try to find a scale with a closed hook, or a fish grip style scale.
  • Quality and Durability: Cheap scales will break at the attachment point, and the load cell can fail from use as well. The reason I like high quality fishing scales is because they tend to use better load cells that give you more accurate readings. They also use quality material like stainless steel for ALL parts of the scale.
  • Customer Satisfaction: I’ve spent time on Cabela’s, Bass Pro, and Amazon looking at all the models, and it’s pretty obvious and easy to spot a crappy scale. Read the customer comments and most of them say “it only worked for a day” or something like that. You want to find a digital fish scale with good reports, such as the Rapala Touch Screen digital scale or the MadBite Multi-Function Grip scale.

Rapala Digital Touch Screen Scale

This is the top of the line Rapala digital fish scale. The Touch Screen Scale comes in weight ranges of 15 lbs and 50 lbs, and is full of useful features for anglers.

The screen is backlit for easy low light viewing, and includes the outside temperature, and 8 data boxes to save your top fish. The data boxes make this useful as part of a bass tournament culling system, or as a fun way to track your total catch weight for the day. While weighing your fish, tap a data box to save it to your total.

The 15 lb version comes with 8 numbered cull tags that correspond to the data boxes on the Touch Screen Scale. Also useful, is the composite jaws to hang your fish from rather than the steel hook that can easily fall out of a fishes mouth.

Unless you are a trophy hunter, the 15 lb version of the Rapala Touch Screen Scale is the best option for most bass fishermen. The 50 lbs version is best for Carp, Catfish, and Saltwater fishing.


Rapala Floating Fish Grip Scale

The Rapala fish grip scale is a hybrid sort of handheld fish scale. It has a large floating fish grips with plastic spring loaded jaws that you would see on a Boga Grip, and an easy to read digital scale readout that is common on more traditional scales.

The scale operates on a small battery, and is controlled by the ON/OFF switch, the only button on the scale. To activate the jaws, all you do is squeeze the handles, and a quick squeeze to release them.

Like the Rapala Tournament Scale, the Rapala Gripper Scale is water resistant, not waterproof, so be aware of that when out in the boat. Overall the Rapala Floating Fish Grip scale is a solid alternative to the 50lb Rapala Touch Screen Scale. It would make a good choice for bass, carp, catfish, musky, or saltwater fishing.


Finishing Thoughts

Now that you’ve read up on the best digital fishing scales available to you, it’s time to make a choice. If we did our job, you will have no problem determining which scale suites your fishing style and budget.

There other mechanical style fish weighing scales like the Boga Grip, that are awesome for larger fish. Boga Grips are especially popular with Musky fishermen, and Saltwater anglers, and you can see why in our review.

Last updated 2024-03-28 at 16:58 / Affiliate Links & Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Tackle Scout

Tackle Scout is an online resource for anglers and boaters looking to catch more fish, and get more from their gear. This site is founded and maintained by real anglers, with decades of fishing and boating experience, as well as longtime members of B.A.S.S. and FLW.

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