Do you lie about your catches

[Andrew]

So you dont think those pics are real then?

 

 

Why !! dont you think they are fake, look at the stunted body of the "angler"

[A Worm OOE]

Although not a speci hunter I can see why some might want to keep quiet. There seem to be so many instant anglers out there these days (nothing wrong with that if its what floats their boat) who will be looking to home in on fish as easily as possible. The easiest way is to jump into the swims of those that are successfull and hammer the swim. That said there is reason to be rude.

I sometimes adopt the same aproach in match fishing. If I am doing well and the local character or bunch of kids stands behind me all they will get is a pleasent hello and a not much happening here. This is because too often I have had a good position ruined by being skylined. That said if it is some keen youngster or other competiotor I will be quite open as long as they show a bit of common sense and get down and keep still.

Otherwise I am very open about what I catch I will allways give other competitors an honest idea of what I have caught although they will have to wait untill after the match to find out how and why I caught. There are some in Match fishing however who never tell you what they have caught right up to the point that the fish go on the scales. Some of them will also never discuss how they caught but they tend to be the ones that believe in secret baits and rigs rather than the ones that realise that its mostlyl about watercraft and feeding.

 

On the point raised earlier about match anglers and Pike I have to admit that some are not entirely inocent.

A post about Pike being killed on the Kennet and Avon Canal some time ago got my back up when the accusation was made that Match anglers were throwing fish up the bank. I defended Match anglers and said that this sort of thing was a thing of the past. Imagine my horror when after the wWinter League Semi final on the same venue a few months ago one of my team mates told me that someone had caught a pike and as it did not count it went up the bank. At the time I wanted to make some complaint but the info I had was too vague and the person who saw it had gone so nothing much could have happened. I still believe that this is not widespread certainly in the South East I have never seen it happen but it seems that some are still int he dark ages.

[Dick Dastardly]

Why !! dont you think they are fake, look at the stunted body of the "angler"

 

No I dont! The only one that does look a bit dodgy is the first one of the Tuna.However I think this is most likely down to the use of a wide angled lens (Im sure Peter,Den or one of the other photo experts could comment on this?) This would certainly account for the "stunted" look of the bird.

 

Definately nothing wrong with either the Wells or Mekong Catfish pictures.Although the anglers in the Mekong pic have made sure they are well behind the fish.

 

The Tarpon looks to be a pretty standard trophy shot of treble.

 

The Black Marlin does have a slightly exagerated look to it caused by the angle of the shot and the position of the angler.But once again as this is the standard way of getting the shot (dont think there is much chance of holding it UK style is there?) Im happy enough with it.

 

Most of the pics are though true and acurate images the ones that are slightly exagerated are no different to the arms length carp pics that have become the standard here.Other than the first one (which still concerns me a bit admitedly) Im 99% sure none of them have been "fixed" or "fiddled" with.

 

Sadly another reason many big fish anglers "lie" about their catches is to avoid accusations like this.

[Andrew]

I would give the cat fish images a true vote, somehow i cannot get me head round why the anglers look stunted, that one whats hanging up !!!!!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Which one Andrew?

[Andrew]

The marlin i think, by the look of the angler to the size of the fish,

 

Give the fella 6 foot tall, the fish looks like its almost 20 foot long and about 5 feet thick, or am i way off the mark ???

 

Same as the first, whats it resting on ???

[Dick Dastardly]

The Marlin wont be resting on anything Andrew.It is suspended by the tail from the crane you can see in the background,the head of the fish laid and resting on the ground.Like I said quite a standard pose for these trophy shots.The fish is sadly dead.I should imagine the Tuna is the same although looking at the pic you cant see any gaff or simmilar in the head suporting it. Your estimates of the length and width aint far off,Marlin of that size are certainly not common but they are caught at weights well exceeding 1000lb on rod and line.The Black Marlin (as shown in the pic) is the largest of the palaegic game fish the more common Blue,White and Stripped although still monsters! grow no where near this size.

 

A lot of shots of Alligator Gar (an American freshwater fish that exceeds 300lb) are often exagerated by the two methods shown in some of these pics ie hanging the fish by the tail or head then the angler stands back a bit therefore making himself look smaller and the fish look bigger.The other is to suport the fish horizontally and once again stand back/behind it.Both "cheating techniques are normally given away by either the angler or the fish not being as sharply in focus as the other (something to do with the camera lens's "depth of feild" ?) once again I will leave it to the more technically knowledgable photographers to explain.Another common cheat is to use a wide angle lens and get really close,once again quite easily spotted.

 

The advent of digital picture editing on PC's has opened up the "oportunity" to "Fix" lots of pictures! Even basic photo editing programmes can create fake pictures.Often the hands give away these shots where the cheat has tried to make the fish look bigger but some of the ones where people have super imposed their faces on other people trophy shots are quite hard to spot at face value.Ones with a black background taken at night are very easy to fix.Under close scrutiny examination of the actual pixels that make up the pic normally can show the truth.

 

Quite why people go to these lengths is beyond me but even more strange is why they take the risk of being exposed as a fake?

Edited June 7, 2006 by BUDGIE

[Andrew]

The 9th image, full of AIR to float like that ??

 

Reading your last reply mate i think you/we agree that to a certain degree that there is some "fixing" going on with in some image presentations then ??

The BASS, 24lb ??

[Dick Dastardly]

It looks like a Grouper or Jew Fish some thing like that.Normally "puff up" like this when they are brought up from depth.The swim bladder is affected by the change in pressure.If we could see down its gob I reckon we would see it.

 

As for the Black Bass Andrew Ive not really caught/seen enough to make a judgement (others on here will have though,Newt?) but if it aint 24 then its not far off it surely?

 

I had another look at the Tuna and even though I still agree it looks a bit strange I can now see the rope that has been passed through the gill covers.

[Andrew]

Shall we agree to agree mate, this could go on forever

 

Two for sure are real fr me, LoL