Carp Catchers Blog

Getting a good picture and correct weight of a capture is important to a lot of anglers and fish welfare is paramount when doing so to help you to be prepared and get some good shots of your carp here’s a few tips on how.

Firstly pick a nice flat area for your unhooking mat and make sure there is some sort of foliage close behind to give a good background for any pictures. Once you’ve landed your prize secure it in the margins with a bank stick through the spreader block of your net making sure its deep enough to hold the fish safely and get everything ready and laid out close to hand. You want to wet your weigh sling and mat, zero the scales, fill a bucket of water to keep the fish wet and prepare the camera.

Once everything is ready lift your capture from the water ensuring all it’s fins are folded back against the body before doing so and lay it gently onto the unhooking mat, some good choices are the Chub Carp Care Cradle or the Venture Carp SI Protection Mat . It maybe easier to have the sling laying over the mat for easy transfer of fish from net to sling. Once unhooked it would be advised to apply some sort of fish friendly antiseptic to hookholds or any damage on the fish in general, such as the Korda Carp Care Kit which has two seperate solutions for hookholds and external damage. Now transfer the fish from the net to sling and move the rod and net out of harms way, then hoist the fish up on the scales to weigh the fish. Once the fish is weighed move scales out the way and lift the fish carefully for photos, putting two fingers either side of it pectoral fins and two fingers either side of its anal fin, this will make it easier to hold the fish steady and avoid it slipping out of your hands. Although this down to personal preference, some people prefer to hold it differently, stick to what feels comfortable.

If the fish flips while being held up for a photo roll it back onto your forearms and lower it back onto the mat.

When taking photos some people prefer to kneel and others prefer to squat down and rest their elbows on their knees to help hold the fish steady. Try to get who ever is taking the photos to try and get level with the fish and frame your whole head and the fish without cutting off any fins. Having you at positioned in front of some foliage will make a nice back drop for the photo and will help draw focus to the fish and yourself.

Try taking photos from other angles as well itll give you a better representation of the fish’s size and will also show some of the fish’s colour better.

During the process of weighing a photographing your capture make sure to keep the fish wet and avoid keeping it out the water for longer than a few minutes.

Tight Lines

David�