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Posts: 24
| Whether or not pics are taken all depends on a few different things. I fish solo without a partner frequently. Sometimes I let a fish play itself out at boatside, take a quick pic with it still hooked and in the water. Instead of netting it I just reach down and unhook it and watch it swim away. It depends on how badly the fish is hooked whether I net it and take it out of the water at all. We've all witnessed a quickly netted fish flopping, twisting and turning in a net and ending up with more hooks stuck in it than before it was netted and also sometimes damaging or injuring gills, tail and fins. I have released a bunch of fish thru the years that I have no pics of. I can only say I wish I had good pics of a beautiful and 'girthy" 50, a couple 48-49, and several in the 45-48 inch size range. Not having pics of a bunch of those 30-35inchers isn't a big deal to me I. For me the fun is in the catching and the releasing. The pics are the trophies that go with the memory for the photo album. A nice, framed pic of a trophy sized fish is nice to have on the wall but not always possible. If replicas weren't so dam high priced, I would have a bunch of fish on the wall. In my personal opinion netting big fish is often more harmful than not netting, along with excessive out of water handling and catching big fish during high summer water temps is also possibly harmful and may result in delayed mortality. |
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Posts: 60
| All muskies are picture worthy.
Ya if the conditions are bad and the fish isn't doing well take a picture of it in the net and log it in your files. Otherwise take real pic. |
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Posts: 2061
Location: Belgium | I guess there are two ways to look at this (and I follow Larry Ramsell in his point of view here):
- if it is your first or largest musky, take some photos obviously. That is a special moment
- if it is the so maniest 30”+ musky, just release it without taking photos. Maybe take a realease shot in the water but don’t bump it, nor drag it in front of a camera.
I rarely take photos these days and try to release fish right away after unhooking them, unless they are exceptionally large. I measured my new PB Northern pike earlier this year at 119cm but it was hooked badly in the gill rakers, so no photos, just a quick measure and release. Seeing that dandy lady swim off in good health meant more to me than a photo session obviously |
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Posts: 793
Location: North Central IL USA | I would say 30inch and above. Not going to bother with the dinks..... |
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