A note for anglers! How to measure the length of a fish?

The Lepel Inter-district Inspectorate for the Protection of Fauna and Flora reminds that the Rules for Fishing and Fishery Management establish a commercial size for certain fish species when conducting commercial and recreational fishing.
A commercial size is the minimum size of a fish, upon reaching which its catch is permitted.
For recreational fishing, a commercial size is established for 12 species of fish:
- Whitefish – 40 cm;
- Pike – 40 cm;
- Ide – 25 cm;
- Tench – 22 cm;
- White Amur – 40 cm;
- Carp – 20 cm;
- Asp – 34 cm;
- Common Bleak – 24 cm;
- Zander – 40 cm;
- Wels Catfish – 70 cm;
- Burbot – 36 cm;
- Common Chub – 25 cm.
The length of a fish is determined by measuring the distance from the tip of the snout (with the mouth closed) to the base of the middle rays of the caudal fin.

In accordance with the Rules, recreational fishing permits the catch of fish that have not reached the commercial size, with a limit of no more than 20% of the number of caught fish of each species for which a commercial size is established.
This means that if you have, for example, five tench in your catch, one of them may be less than 22 centimetres long. The remaining four tench must be 22 centimetres or longer.
This is essentially all that needs to be known and considered when determining the commercial size of fish in Belarus during recreational fishing.
We call on all anglers to strictly adhere to these simple rules.