Pictures

[steve98]

I enjoy seeing most of the beautiful pics of native Brook Trout on this site.
I do not enjoy seeing the ones where the Trout is laying in the mud, or on a pile or dry leaves or on some rock.
What is with that?

Steve98

 

[Bruno]

the ones in the cast iron skillet bother me when there are no lemons and capers in the backround

 

[pete41]

I couldn't agree more Steve98.The vanity pictures here and elsewhere make me cringe.So someone caught a fish-whoppeee.Keep them in the water,revive and let go seems fairest to the fish anyway.

 

[Acristickid]

I am guilty to a degree but try to keep all the fish in the water. I take a picture of 1% of the fish I catch. I do not disagree with you.

 

[plumbob]

Don't see the problem as long as they are able to swim away, if your going to keep them out for an hour or more to try to get the perfect picture then thats something else, cook em up already. Most of the time I'm alone when fishing so I'm not able to get a shot of them unless they are out of the water. Don't take pic's for vanity reasons, just because I would like to look back and remember the moment. Haven't had a fish that I've taken a picture of not be able to swim away on its own.

 

Steve98, I also, must agree with you on your question.
I, think too, what a lot of fishermen don't understand, is that "just because he swam away, after I laid him on dry leaves for a picture, or in the mud"......................DOESN'T mean, that fish from loss of protective slime, (left on the leaves, or the grit in the mud), won't die several days to a week later, due to infections and damage caused by such poor handling.
This also ties in with playing a fish too long, but "not worrying about him, because he swam away afterwards!". True, he may have. But, again, "swimming away AT THE TIME", does not mean that the fish 'will survive to fight another day". A lot of damage can be done to our finned friends, from our mishandling, that does not show up as "trouble" for some time after the fact.
"It doesn't hurt, at all, to fall off a cliff.............. until you come to that sudden stop at the bottom".

 

[Padraic]

You can add to that; guys who hold a large trout with one hand, by the mouth, or with a finger through the gills. All of which I have seen in "C&R" pictures. :-o

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

You know, steve, people make fun of me all the time for carrying a rubber coated net on small streams but I carry one for exactly this purpose:



If I don't use the net to coral the fish and keep it in the water, I would beach many fish on these small streams. There just isn't another way. This way I only remove the fish from the water for a brief picture (see some water still in the bottom of the net for this one) and unhook it while it is half sumerged with some hemostats. The fish don't flop around in the net much compared to when you hold them and tend to pose better for you. A completely hands free, rock free, leaf free operation. And I only rarely do a grip and grin.

I do eat an occasional fish (not wild brookies) and think there are much worse things in the world than beached fish pictures but have done the above in an attempt to minimize my impact on the fish and the grief I get when I post fish on the internet.

 

[plumbob]

I'm all for catch and release and not fighting a fish to the death but to get all bent out of shape for taking a picture of a fish while out of the water ? If you truly don't want to hurt them then don't bother to fish for them or at the very least just cut the bend of the hook off your fly and just play tag with them. I figure I take under five pictures of fish out of the hundred or more that I will catch every year. If out of that 5 three don't make it, which I don't feel has happened, who's to say that every fish you catch has lived to be caught another day when handled "correctly". How many Reds have you walked through while wading.

This thread has been brought to you by PETA. :lol:

 

[JackM]

Trout are slightly less durable than other fishes, but they are not fragile like glass. Excessive time out of water and excessive scraping of the slime layer isn't good, but time enough to lift it set it down if you wish, snap a picture and return it to the water is not likely to do any harm to a healthy fish. Now, if you played it for 10 minutes on your 2 weight with 7x tippet in 74 degree water, it is probably best to keep it in the water and not touch it at all.

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

I know, I know, there are those that think nets are the worst of all....

Then there are those that want me to wade out into the middle of my small brookie streams while landing a fish, wet my hands while steering the brookie away from the shore that he is running towards, gently cradle the flapping brookie with two hands, and snap a picture with my third hand......

Really its quite a miracle that anyone wants to post pictures of fish at all...

My experience on small streams (where most of these "beached" pictures come from) involve you fishing from a bank, crouched in drab clothing.....either the fish is getting beached or netted, 90% of the time there is no other option.

 

[buckbarrett]

What is the proper protocal? It seems that a picture is the modern day version of a trophy or a mounted version. I C&R all the time but do like to have a pic. I'm sure after I've caught thousands the thrill of a snapshot will be over, but certain times are momentous. I havent caught a palomino yet , and would do everything not to kill it, but I sure do want a picture.

 

[Maurice]

Buck,

My protocol is to play it quick and bring it to hand, Just before I get it to me, I get out the camera, pick up the trout and snap it in while in my hand. Then unhook and release it. If it is bigger than 12" a hand photo doesn't do much for the pic. A net helps reduce the stress to the fish. Once netted, take the pic in the net or put it in the grass streamside. Shoot and put the camera down and put the fish back.

So long as you treat the fish with more respect than the camera, it should be a successful release.

Maurice

 

[pete41]

Well Steve,it might be a generation thing.
In my 60 plus years of being an avid angler I never once felt the need to procure a lifeless looking image of a beaten foe but I sure enjoyed Vince Marinaro's[sp?] pictures of rising trout on the Letort.[TIC]
I adopted his``Tally Ho and farewell'' attitude about the ones that whip us.

 

[PaulG]

plumbob wrote:
I'm all for catch and release and not fighting a fish to the death but to get all bent out of shape for taking a picture of a fish while out of the water ? If you truly don't want to hurt them then don't bother to fish for them or at the very least just cut the bend of the hook off your fly and just play tag with them. I figure I take under five pictures of fish out of the hundred or more that I will catch every year. If out of that 5 three don't make it, which I don't feel has happened, who's to say that every fish you catch has lived to be caught another day when handled "correctly". How many Reds have you walked through while wading.

This thread has been brought to you by PETA. :lol:

I usually dont take pic's of fish only because I always screw them up. I have to agree with plumbob and Jack here, can't see anything wrong with taking pics. I think trout are a lot stronger then people give them credit for.

So go ahead and take your pics and post them on here, I enjoy looking at them!

PaulG

Ps, We've comdemed stream reports and now no pics, before long all will be able to do is talk politics

 

[pete41]

My last reply was TIC [tongue in cheek].
I don't think anyone is condemning the taking of pictures or posting of them.
Maurice's picture is great.An obviously live fish about to go into its natural element.Can't fault that,its the ones that are lain out like trophies that makes one wonder about dry hands,fishes protective coating being removed etc..
The ``it swam away '' is a very poor argument as I am sure we have all seen fish that were mishandled and developed problems.

 

[Padraic]

buckbarrett wrote:
What is the proper protocal? It seems that a picture is the modern day version of a trophy or a mounted version. I C&R all the time but do like to have a pic. I'm sure after I've caught thousands the thrill of a snapshot will be over, but certain times are momentous. I havent caught a palomino yet , and would do everything not to kill it, but I sure do want a picture.

I rarely take photos but when I did, I tried to avoid putting the fish through "undue" stress. Afterall, the goal is to come back and catch it next year when it's even bigger. So what I did was:

Use a C&R landing net to bring the fish in, and lay the fish out on that. This kept the fish wet, and avoided scraping the slime layer off the fish. or

Put the camera up on the bank or a tree, use the timer and lift the fish out of the water just before the picture is taken. or

I move the fish into the shallows and take the pic there. or

A friend could take the pic as I held it out of the water for a moment. or

I splash water up on the grass or moss along a stream so the fish is at least on wet ground, which won't scrape the slime layer off (as badly). I don't like this option though.

When handling the fish, I wet my hands and support the fish. If I can't do all this, I don't take the picture.

Here's a great article:
http://flyfisherman.com/skills/release/

 

[JackM]

"The 'it swam away' is a very poor argument as I am sure we have all seen fish that were mishandled and developed problems."

A trout I caught last week really must have inhaled the huge hexagenia spinner imitation I dreamed up. I tightened up as soon as he engulfed it, but when I got him to hand, the hook had impaled the lower gill cartilage and he was bleeding. Knowing a racoon or musky would enjoy him more than I would, I released him anyway. He took off like a bat out of heck-- heck I tell ya'. So, yes, the fact that a fish swims away is no assurance that it is in good shape, yet swimming away is a better sign than it sitting down on the bottom sucking wind or floating off upside down, or as noted by someone else, frying in olive oil.

 

[tomgamber]

..and capers..don't forget the lemons and capers!!!!!

 

[albatross]

We all have to accept that there will be some incidental mortality associated with our sport. Taking photos will probably tend to increase the rate of incidental mortality. I think we each have to come to terms with how far we are willing to go to minimize this mortality. As PlumBob suggested you can just cut the bend of the hook off and play tag with the fish if you really want to reduce mortality. Personally, I'm not willing to go that far...