Release Pics
We have all seen thousands of hero shots, the standard grip-and-grin, front cover of a magazine shot. And, most of us are tired of them, unless there is something truly special about the picture– a guy with no arms and a grander marlin in his lap, a 5 year old girl hugging a fish twice her size.
As a guy who likes to take people out to catch their first carp, I’ve taken plenty of hero shots, and, you’ll see them on this blog from time to time. However, my favorite shots these days are release shots– or other handling shots. The release shot definitely has the most artistic potential, but some of the other snaps that come along the way do the best job at telling the whole story.
I just recently started a new job, and on the very last day of freedom my wife and I went to the lake to pole a flat for spotted gar. The water was screwed up and we couldn’t see them, and as a last ditch attempt I decided to give the longnose gar a quick looking after. My wife doesn’t like messing with fish bigger than a pound or two because they scare her, so I felt no guilt at all lunging for the 10 weight when I spotted the fish laid up and happy.
I handed her the camera before I boated the fish, because I just don’t get to catch a whole lot of longnose. I expected to get a quick grip and grin before letting it go. I honestly had no idea that she took pictures of the whole process though, until I downloaded them from my camera a few days later.
rope flies?
Is there a secret to deroping? I’m having visions of bringing one to hand and not being able to safely release….
Yeah, rope “flies.” The only secret, Ward, is using BIG tippet. If you can’t get them deroped, well, you just sewed their mouth shut and they’ll slowly starve, I suppose. You got to fly with something big: I use straight 50# mono. Their teeth aren’t really all that bad, and you’d have to have a freak accident to get them to cut through something like 20# mono, but, I have had them cut through 16 before (no rope, thankfully), and I don’t want to take chances. Besides, the 50# mono makes casting the wet rope so much easier.
As far as actually removing the rope, it doesn’t hurt to have one guy hold the fish down a little while another slowly de-tangles. Gar can breathe air, so, as long as you don’t sit on them or wipe too much slime off, they can pretty much survive your handling times. I have had one on the boat for 15 minutes before, but, like all other fish, I do try to handle them quickly and respectfully.
I really appreciate the info Dave. I’ve been nervous about sewing their mouths shut. Bringing a gar (don’t even care which species)to hand is goal #1 for the summer. I’ve been waiting for a nice sunny hot day to try and track some down, it seems like each time I’m free the conditions haven’t been right! I’ll have to try the heavier mono, my first day with the rope flies was with old school spiderwire as a leader and it was a casting disaster.
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way
I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Another state record you threw away!!!! Geeesssshhhhhhh!!!!
Haha Cliff I didn’t think it was big enough, for some reason I thought the state rec was bigger. Oh well.