when taking photos of your fish.. read this please!

[carl street]

please please please when you have your photo taken with your prized catch please hold your fish while you are kneeling down with an unhooking mat underneath your treasured capture, remember the first thing is to capture the fish, second is to take great care so as to return the fish in the same condition as you caught it.

[nigel]

Good advice carl, get prepared before hand if you want to take pictures,

[themadmother]

as i am usually on my own most of mine are pictured in the landing net. maybe not as impressive but harder for them to fall out of!

[Mark]

I must admit I usually stand up with my pike for photos and most of the photos you see (magazines etc) are of people stood up too. I'd consider myself fairly experienced at handling them (usually you know when they'll flap and act accordingly etc) but I guess the 'better to be safe than sorry' approach is not a bad thing, especially for people who aren't confident handlers. I'd certainly hate the idea of catching a fish and then sending it to it's doom, no matter how big or small.

[Ben Sale]

Yeah most of my fishing is on my own, i don;t own an unhooking mat but have a 36inch landing net and always unhook my fish on soft grass then wrap the net round them so they cant jump about and damage themselves whilst i set the camera up.
Also never just let the fish go straight away, let it get its breath back :) especially Barbel and pike!

[andy brookes]

you make complete sense mate. i thnk ill be doing that from now on. good advise

[michael barnett]

your hands seem enormous in your photos carl. hows that ?mike.

[carl street]

ha! everybody comments on my hands! i have a hell of a job getting gloves to fit me mate, my right fist is 5 1/2 " across and from my wrist to the end of my middle finger is 8 1/2 " can be a pain sometimes but her indoors nerver complains!