Hi Paul, what would you suggest as a better way of taking a pic? I have tried loads of different ways and cant find a better way than out onto a grassy surface, rod down for scale, quick pic and back in the water.
On one of our local forums, there is also a thread, on how to get good pics, when fishing solo.
On of the replies by dlampert is as follows.
Here are a couple of points after a couple of years of doing this:
1. Learn to operate your camera and all its controls with one hand – with a point and shoot this shouldn’t be a problem
2. Net the fish and keep it in the water (head facing upstream preferably) making sure that you are not impeding water flow through its gills
3. Keep the fly in the fishes mouth
4. Get your camera out, turn it on and make sure all the settings are correct. You can always shoot a test shot and then check that your shutter speed is adequate
5. Shoot a couple of shots of the fish in the net (just in case you lose it)
6. If it’s a large fish then it should preferably not be lifted out of the water with one hand. You can however lift it in the water with one hand so that its eye is out of the water
7. Leaving the fish in the water, tilt the fish away from you and shoot a couple of shots
8. Leaving the fish in the net, take it into shallow water and shoot a couple of shots of it on its side or upright. Make sure that it will not hurt itself if it starts flapping around although if treated gently fish will often relax in the shallows. Place your rod next to it if you want a sense of scale.
9. Under no circumstances should you ever place a fish on a dry bank or rocks as its chances of injuring itself are too great and in order to do this the fish will be out of the water for too long. How long is too long? More than 2 – 3 seconds would be considered too long – the longer the fish is out of water the worse its chance of survival.
10. Never hold a fish out of water above dry land – if you drop it you will injure it and possibly kill it
11. Take the fish out of the net now and shoot a couple of shots in the shallows as per above
12. Remove the fly and make sure you revive the fish properly before releasing it.
13. With a large fish you can hold it by the tail in a gentle current and shoot a couple of shots as you release it
14. Remember that large fish will often require more time to revive them properly
15. At all times consider the wellbeing of the fish first, if you cannot take a shot safely then rather release the fish carefully and cherish the memory snapshot
Very handy tips.
Another good tip, is to put your camera on BURST, you wnd up with a lot of photos, but there are sure to be one or 2 good ones among them, the rest you delete.
