Why do people put fish on rocks for pictues????

[afishinado]

I've learned a lot from Mo.

The "dead mackerel eye" is one thing I never knew about

"up the tailpipe" is another

and recently I learned about "tombstones and oyster rocks"

 

[BradFromPotter]

I like mine on a wood cutting board...right before going into a smoker;-)

 

[wildtrout2]

There's always going to be those who don't approve of messing with a trout for a pic, that won't change. But, there are ways to take pics that leave the fish pretty much no worse for wear.

I keep my Canon Power Shot hanging on a bino harness that's on the inside of whatever shirt I'm wearing, this makes it easily accessible. If I decide to get a pic of a given trout, the first thing I do is reach in, pull out the cam, and turn it on. Then I look around for a good shallow spot to lead my fish for unhooking. Once there, I WET my hands, unhook the trout (that often escapes), and snap a quick pic. This takes no more than a minute, tops.

This has worked well for me. I want to add, as mentioned previously, that grabbing/gripping a trout too tightly only makes them resist that much more. I find simply allowing the fish to lay gently in your hand right at water level keeps them relatively calm.

 

[Maurice]

afishinado wrote:
I've learned a lot from Mo.

The "dead mackerel eye" is one thing I never knew about

"up the tailpipe" is another

and recently I learned about "tombstones and oyster rocks"

It's not "up the tailpipe" its tailpipe envy! Which for those who are not in the know is the phenomenon whereby stocked trout demonstrate the same behavior in a stream after stocked. Podding up in a cluster staring at the tailpipe of the fish in front of them. Because 99% of the fish until they are 1.5 years old see only tailpipes, when stocked in smaller groups the "lead dogs" become disoriented and fall back to the back of the pod to once again put their nos up the tailpipe of another. It is recognized by the ignorant as trout" swimming in circles"

And the tombstone rocks are just a characteristic of the "graveyard" pools where long seemingly featureless pools have large flat stones (often the size of a tombstone or kitchen table on the bottom. These the edges of these stones become scoured underneath creating overhead cover for trout.

Oyster rocks are large mid-stream boulders the size of a small car that have convex bottoms where current sweeps around and form eddies behind them and again overhead cover.

The more ya know...

 

[Maurice]

wildtrout2 wrote:
There's always going to be those who don't approve of messing with a trout for a pic, that won't change. But, there are ways to take pics that leave the fish pretty much no worse for wear.

I keep my Canon Power Shot hanging on a bino harness that's on the inside of whatever shirt I'm wearing, this makes it easily accessible. If I decide to get a pic of a given trout, the first thing I do is reach in, pull out the cam, and turn it on. Then I look around for a good shallow spot to lead my fish for unhooking. Once there, I WET my hands, unhook the trout (that often escapes), and snap a quick pic. This takes no more minute, tops.

This has worked well for me. I want to add, as mentioned previously, that grabbing/gripping a trout too tightly only makes them resist that much more. I find simply allowing the fish to lay gently in your hand right at water level keeps them relatively calm.

This is my method as well...and I take a lot of pics of trout. The only thing I would add is that by cradling the trout upside down it seems to calm and disorient the fish for unhooking. Then roll the fish over lift my hand, open my fingers so as not to cover the flanks or fins and snap the shot. I would put the time nearer to 15-20 seconds. The key is to have the camera fired up and ready during the fight so you are not fumbling with settings during the shoot.

Also to get the best shot and avoid highlight burn out, I like to turn my body so my shadow is over the fish. As see in the pics below. All the same fish probably somewhere between 1 minute and under three minutes based n the time stamps total time handled. I had originally estimated 30 seconds. Time flies when u are having fun.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

When I'm old I highly doubt I will be feeling the need to look at hundreds of pics of average trout. Pics of family and friends will be much more important. I do wonder about the obsession with fish pics.
Who is all of it for?

 

[Maurice]

foxtrapper1972 wrote:
When I'm old I highly doubt I will be feeling the need to look at hundreds of pics of average trout. Pics of family and friends will be much more important. I do wonder about the obsession with fish pics.

Suit yourself Fox, frankly I'd rather look at fish pics than pics of your family. Besides, I fascinated by average fish because they all are different in their own way. And after handling so many I have become confident to be able to tell wild from stocked to even stocked from our cooperative nursery vs the state fish. This also becomes more interesting when catching trout in the fall prior to a stocking and hypothesizing which type they are. Or rather which fish are carrying over the summer when a stream reaches the 80 degree mark.

I find it interesting to the point that I have created a PowerPoint presentation highlighting these differences and the likelyhoood of the origin. Many people find it interesting, mostly newbys and people who previously didn't care. (And probably still don't) but it's good winter fodder for a TU meeting for those who do care about cold water conservation.

My wife thinks they all look alike. She is also the one who has to stick a handful of people in front of a beautiful vacation scene. You would probably get along with her fine. :-D

 

[Skeet6]

I personally don't understand why people have to show the fly rod - oftentimes going as far as holding it in their mouth like a German Shepherd would. Is it just to prove that they used a fly rod? I just don't get that one, and it seems very common these days.
Mike B

 

[Maurice]

Skeet6 wrote:
I personally don't understand why people have to show the fly rod - oftentimes going as far as holding it in their mouth like a German Shepherd would. Is it just to prove that they used a fly rod? I just don't get that one, and it seems very common these days.
Mike B

Skeet, Or when they hang it over their shoulders. But like I said, TETO.

 

[wildtrout2]

Skeet6 wrote:
I personally don't understand why people have to show the fly rod - oftentimes going as far as holding it in their mouth...
Mike B

I think that it's some sort of validation. To each their own. I prefer to show the fish by itself, it's about the beauty of the trout, not my equipment.

 

[ryansheehan]

I love looking through old pictures of fish, brings me right back.

 

[Dave_W]

ryansheehan wrote:
I love looking through old pictures of fish, brings me right back.

Me too.
I'll bet many of you have old polaroid pics of fish you caught back in the day. I've got boxes full of 'em, mostly from the 1980s, but a few earlier.

Amazingly, old fish really stick in my mind and when I pull out one of these dusty old pics, I can usually remember where I caught it - if not the exact spot, certainly the stream.

 

[ryansheehan]

My favorite pics are from summer vacation at deep creek lake as a kid. My mother still has them organized in a photo album for all to see. Somehow the trout seemed alot bigger when I was younger.

 

[Burndar]

I know I'm guilty of taking a number of pics poorly before I started learning about proper handling techniques. I agree a photo of a fish can bring you right back and certainly holds value. Same can be said for images of the location or friends you were out with.

 

[steveo27]

Maurice nailed it.

Ive caught fish, snapped a quick picture of the fish, then released it, only to catch the same fish months later. I feel my picture technique (the same way most people described) works. I can think of at least 1 situation this past year the same fish was caught 3 times over the course of a year in the same hole in the same creek. Fish can definitely be caught and photographed responsible

 

[csoult]

If you don't want to stress the fish don't put a metal hook in its mouth then drag it through the water.....

 

[wbranch]

csoult wrote:

If you don't want to stress the fish don't put a metal hook in its mouth then drag it through the water.....

This is a very good point. I think those fly fishers who are truly concerned about the welfare of the trout we pursue they should do as the native Americans used to do. They counted "coup". Which in essence meant they didn't feel they had to kill, or wound, an enemy to gain coup or prestige. Just touching the enemies body or bow, or other weapon was enough to gain them honor in the tribe.

I suggest those fly fishers hence forth take a pair of diagonals and snip off the entire business end of the fly. Cut the hook right where the shank transitions into the bend. Then the next time they are on their favorite piece of water bring a pen and little journal and cast these flies and whenever they get a strike they still get the pleasure of rising or getting the fish to strike the fly yet the quarry is not subject to any unnecessary pain and suffering. Then record the episode so they can share it with their friends.

 

[tomitrout]

Then the next time they are on their favorite piece of water bring a pen and little journal and cast these flies and whenever they get a strike they still get the pleasure of rising or getting the fish to strike the fly yet the quarry is not subject to any unnecessary pain and suffering.

But what about the embarrassment and mental anguish the fish goes thru after realizing he's been fooled? The resulting therapy, teasing on the fishy playground...

 

[csoult]

wbranch wrote:
csoult wrote:

If you don't want to stress the fish don't put a metal hook in its mouth then drag it through the water.....

This is a very good point. I think those fly fishers who are truly concerned about the welfare of the trout we pursue they should do as the native Americans used to do. They counted "coup". Which in essence meant they didn't feel they had to kill, or wound, an enemy to gain coup or prestige. Just touching the enemies body or bow, or other weapon was enough to gain them honor in the tribe.

I suggest those fly fishers hence forth take a pair of diagonals and snip off the entire business end of the fly. Cut the hook right where the shank transitions into the bend. Then the next time they are on their favorite piece of water bring a pen and little journal and cast these flies and whenever they get a strike they still get the pleasure of rising or getting the fish to strike the fly yet the quarry is not subject to any unnecessary pain and suffering. Then record the episode so they can share it with their friends.

My point is that this whole argument is quite counter intuitive. You can't ***** about how someone is handling fish when your whole objective is to put a sharp object through an animals mouth and drag it through the water for your own amusement.

Then in his own Avatar there is a picture of him holding a fish out of water, depriving it of breath, so he can get a hero shot. I don't have a problem with hero shots at all, and take them myself, but you can't put yourself on a soapbox when you're doing something that is very similar.

No offense to the OP or anyone in this thread, this is just my view on these conversations.

 

[dudemanspecial]

Right on the money csoult. The damage a fish endures from lying on a rock for 10 seconds pales in comparison to the stress from the hook and landing. I'm not a rock layer, but I love handling them. One of my favorite parts of fishing is holding the fish for a moment. Pretty rare that they don't swim away when I'm done