5 Mat Shots, Better Than Nothing

When fishing alone, it's not always possible to get desired photos of our fish using a proper pose. In those cases, a mat shot of your carp is better than nothing.

Rather than a straight above picture orientation, try taking the photo from a lower level or at different angles. It can help create some drama and interest in an otherwise mundane photo.

Instead of straight above with the fish square in the frame I took this one above at an angle.

Here's one from a lower level and angle to add some more interest to the photo.

Most modern Smart Phone's have a camera and many of those phone cameras allow for voice activated photo captures. It's as simple as activating the phone camera and propping the phone against a can of corn on top of a bench (or 5 gallon bucket in my case), or something similar. Then, pose the fish and (on my Galaxy S9) give the command "cheese".  It works like a charm.

If your phone doesn't have built in voice activation for the camera try searching for a voice activated camera application in the app store. There are many free ones that will do the job very well. Alternatively, try taking a video of you posing the fish. You can always take a screen capture of the fish later on.

Sometimes the fishing is so good, you don't have time to be creative and you just take whatever photo you can get at the time. This "triple" run tested my carp fishing abilities to the max. If my wife hadn't been standing there on a lark, the 3rd fish would have certainly spooled me.

I like to take tail shots. It really gives an unusual perspective for just how large the fish is.

This mat photo gives perspective for how long this fish was. The mat is 36" and the fish was at least 41" or possibly 42" based on how the tail extended past the edge of the mat. This fish weighed 37#.

Carp Photo Gallery

This slideshow includes a few of my carp catches in 2015.

Fish Weights

I posted a picture to a Facebook carp fishing group recently of a fish my wife caught. It was a very nice fish. A fish I would have been very proud to catch myself. The fish weighed 24 pounds and 2 ounces.

Someone posted a comment on the picture insinuating that the fish did not weigh that much. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but the more I think about it I'm bothered by his comment. The comment has since been removed by the fellow who made it, but that doesn't mean he didn't really mean it.

I do use a hand held digital scale, but I regularly ensure it's accuracy by weighing a 15 pound kettle bell that I have on hand. The kettle bell weighs in at 1 ounce below 15 pounds on my digital scale.

If anything, I under weigh the fish I post to the web. My Resistance Tackle sling weighs 1 pound and 10 ounces when it's completely dry. So when I weigh a fish I subtract 2 pounds when the sling is dry. If the sling is wet, I weigh the fish first and then re-weigh the sling after returning the fish to the water and subtract the difference. The sling is heavy from the water absorbed when returning the fish to the water. Most of the time I just round the weights down to the nearest pound for the sake of simplicity unless it's close to a new personal best.

For the fish in question yesterday, I am guessing the photograph caused the commenter to question the fish's weight. But what the commenter didn't realize is the fish would not hold still long enough to snap a high quality picture with our cell phone. The fish had one thing in mind - returning to the water as quickly as possible. If the fish is wiggling when the picture is snapped, the tail generally bends forward or backward, which distorts the true size and length of the fish.

Some fish cooperate and we get quality pictures. Some fish don't cooperate as much. They are only fish after all and we catch them because it's fun; it's exciting and we enjoy showing them to friends and family.

I post pictures of the big fish and the small fish a like. Whether I catch a 9 pound fish, or a 24 pound fish; I enjoy it the same. I am not a sponsored angler. I don't have a professional photographer follow me around to take pictures of my catches. Those that know me understand that I do not have a big ego; so I have no reason to say a fish weighs more than it really does.

I hope this clears up any doubts any past or future readers have about pictures of fish I post and how much they weigh.

Here's a blooper picture of a 9 pound fish I caught yesterday. I don't remember what I was looking at, but it must have been interesting.

First fish caught using Trilene Big Game fused to Power Pro with a uni knot

We do our best to get high quality pictures, but sometimes lighting and background plays a big part I the picture quality. It's generally a bad idea to take pictures with a water background like in the picture above. In the interest of time, we still do it sometimes - especially for average size fish.