Retro WON: DamselFly Fisher, The Best Photos are the Worst Photos

Katherine Grand’s Most Hilarious Trout Pictures

Since I have started fly fishing, I have quickly learned that the only way to take good fish pictures is to set the camera on rapid fire and click away. And always, I use safe handling techniques, as I wrote about earlier. This way, the fish doesn’t stay out of the water long for the picture and chances are one of the 10 or 20 pictures you take in rapid succession will be a good one.  The added benefit of this is that you can often catch the epic unplanned-fish-release-photo, too.

Whoa! How often do you get to see an expression like this one? Photo courtesy of Katherine Grand

I was inspired to write this blog after going on a float trip with our good friends and newlyweds Robby and Jamie Cribbs this past weekend.  Robby was fishing from his wife’s OSG Commander Outcast kick boat as we floated in our new Boulder Boat Works Drift Boat.  We eddied out and I noticed Robby battling what appeared to be a sizable trout.  He pulled over in the same eddy to land the fish and I rushed over with my camera to snap a picture of him with a nice 20-inch-plus rainbow.  As he grabbed the fish from the net, it started struggling. I started snapping pictures.  The result was this hilarious photo.  This photo is currently my desktop background and I have spent way more time laughing at it than I care to admit.

Photo courtesy of Katherine Grand

This started me thinking about the hilarious fish “release” photos I have taken and have been taken of me.  I, too, am not immune to the unplanned fish release and one of my favorite fish dropping photos is one from Eric’s and my honeymoon on the Green River.  I had caught a nice 20-inch rainbow and Eric snapped a beautiful picture that looks like I am karate chopping the fish.  Not only is catching the fish in midair hilarious, but every fish dropping photo we have taken or that has been taken of us captures ourselves, friends, or clients making the most ridiculous faces imaginable.

DamselFly

Photo courtesy of Eric Grand

My other favorite fish release photo I took of a client my first year guiding.  My client had caught a nice brown and I was able to capture the brown flying towards the camera and the splash as it hit the water.  These photos turned out much better than typical fish shots and will be among my favorites for years to come.

DamselFly

Photo courtesy of Katherine Grand

 

Tight lines and thanks for reading!

This Retro WON first appeared July 11, 2012.

  • About Katherine Grand

    Katherine Grand pens "DamselFly Fisher" and works as Pro-Staff and Dealer Relations Coordinator at Prois Hunting and Field Apparel in Gunnison, Colo. She also guides in fly-fishing waters near Gunnison.

     

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