A fish measuring system (10) for measuring the length and the girth of a fish, the measuring of both the length and the girth being done in a safe, rapid, accurate and economical manner, the system comprising, in combination:
- a girth measurer (14) having a fixed assembly and a movable assembly, the fixed assembly including a generally tubular elongated body (16) with an interior end and an exterior end, a fixed handle (18) at the interior end adapted to be fixedly held during use, a generally triangular guide (20) at the exterior end, the guide having a lower extent with closely spaced lateral first and second lower slots (22), (24), the guide having an upper extent with widely spaced lateral first and second upper slots (26), (28) extending as extensions from the lower slots;
- the movable assembly including a tubular slider (32) reciprocally mounted within the body of the fixed assembly, the slider having an exterior end and an interior end, a block (34) on the exterior end of the slider, a movable handle (36) on the interior end of the slider for movement toward and away from the triangular guide, a strap (38) fabricated of a flexible, inextensible material, the strap having a first end (40) and a second end (42), the first end passing downwardly through the first upper slot and the first lower slot and attached to the block, the second end passing downwardly through the second upper slot and the second lower slot and attached to the block, the strap being in two parallel sections between the triangular guide and the block, the sections being of varying lengths as a function of the position of the movable handle with respect to the fixed handle, the strap being in a closed loop between the two upper slots, the loop being of varying circumferences as a function of the position of the movable handle with respect to the fixed handle, opposed parallel first and second surfaces (44) on the body between the movable handle and the guide, first and second additional surfaces (46) on the body between the movable handle and the guide with numbers to be read by a user in determining the girth of a fish being measured, the girth of the fish to be measured being positioned in the loop while the loop is enlarged by moving the slider toward the triangular guide whereafter the slider is moved away from the guide until the strap is in contact with the girth of the fish whereupon the lowermost of the numbers which are visible represents the girth of the fish being measured;
- a length measurer including a tape measure (48), the tape measure including a housing (50) and a tape (52), the housing being in a cylindrical configuration with first and second circular end walls (54) and a cylindrical wall (56) between the end walls thereby defining a chamber there within, the cylindrical wall having a slot (58) for the passage of the tape;
- a coil spring (60) within the chamber, a button (63) on the first end wall of the housing of the tape measure whereby when the button is pressed, the tape is coiled up within the chamber;
- a pin (62) on the second end wall of the housing of the tape measure, the pin removably coupling the tape measure to the triangular guide, the tape measure adapted to be separated from the triangular guide when measuring the length of a fish and when measuring the girth of a fish;
- the tape having an interior section (64) and an exterior section (66), the interior section having an inner end and an outer end with the inner end being within the chamber adapted to be coiled up and uncoiled by the action of the coil spring or the handle, the exterior section having an inner end and a free outer end, the outer end of the interior section and the inner end of the exterior section having co-operable fasteners (68) for separably coupling the interior and exterior sections, a supplemental exterior section (70) adapted to couple to the interior section, a “0” marking on the exterior section with the numbers increasing moving away from the housing for measuring the length of the fish rearwardly of a mouth of the fish and with the numbers increasing moving toward the housing for measuring the length of the fish forward of the mouth;
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- a clip (72) removably attached to the tape at the “0” marking, the clip adapted to receive and support a line, leader or hook while in the mouth of the fish to be measured, the measuring of the fish being achieved by adding the lengths of the fish forward of and rearwardly of the mouth.