Salmon Fight Videos & Photographs
By Jock Monteith 11th April 2020
While a few of us on the Tay are 'would be' camera men and have been consistent with capturing salmon video & photograph shots for 10 years plus the majority of anglers & ghillies don't currently contribute consistently enough on this important front and therefore missing great River Tay marketing opportunities when salmon are caught.
A United Salmon River Promotional Effort
If you're a time share beat professional ghillie on the Tay and your wages are guaranteed I understand there's no real need to get involved and that uploading videos or photographs can easily be viewed as unpaid additional work. In saying that there's great 'synergy' for the entire river to be achieved if you're comfortable changing your views on the above even if there's no availability on your own individual salmon beat. As the vast majority of you are genuine 'big hearted' men I've no doubt you'll certainly consider this suggestion for the benefit of the entire river. We are truly in an era now where national & international fishing clients are looking to social media for their salmon fishing booking motivation. By becoming consistently active on this front it will also counteract bad publicity certain ignorant tabloids have spewed recently about our game which was primarily due to the prolonged hot weather conditions last year which hopefully we won't be seeing a repeat of too often in the future. The media really need to acquire a basic understanding of the sport and learn the fact that salmon have never responded favourably to low warm water conditions!
Taking Salmon Fight Footage Videos
If you’re fishing with a colleague who has hooked a salmon and you have a phone with a video recorder built into it here’s a few pointers to ensure the memory is optimally captured. A good video should have the sunlight behind or to the side of the cameraman, the frame evenly spaced with the angler in the centre of frame without being too far away. Try to get into a position to the side and slightly behind showing the angler, most of or all of his rod and the area of the river where the salmon is likely to jump or splash. A salmon fight footage video should be steady in the hand with slow sweeping movements that do not jump about. Capturing the splashing or jumping of a salmon is brilliant for the memory therefore becoming good at taking videos is very worthwhile. Try to control your breathing and slowly and methodically talk your colleague through what is happening with occasional instructional tips throughout the fight if required.
Relax Into The Fight With Some Banter
Try to inject a bit of humour to help relax your colleague (or fishing guest) and avoid long periods of silence or where the camera is only picking up areas of dead river. Only switch off the video when you think the salmon is ready to be landed if you’re the ghillie so this achieves 2 purposes in not rushing the fight by having the net ready too soon and also capturing highly valuable memorable & marketing material. If you’re not the ghillie and not personally landing the fish keep filming all the way to the landing net. A good example of video footage of a salmon being played is available here. That particular Scandinavian chap was 'thrown' a buckled Spey rod while walking the riverbank before his fishing day arrived! Good videos of Scottish salmon being played and uploaded onto social media makes the very best advert for Scottish salmon fishing so follow the above pointers and help to promote your beat, river & this fantastic and massively 'under-marketed' pursuit!
Photographing A Salmon
A good shot should have the sunlight behind the cameraman, the frame evenly spaced with the angler in the centre of frame without being too far away. Ideally the shot should also include the section of the pool where the salmon was hooked in the background with some of the scenic riverbank also visible. If the salmon has to be handled at all the angler’s 'pre wetted' hands should be behind the salmon’s head and tail area (not obscuring the front of the fish) and the fish should be in an upright position and sometimes even slightly tilted (belly forward) so that its silver flanks can be captured by the camera. The fish should be briefly lifted from the water to just above the waterline for a few seconds while these shots are being taken.The angler should also be asked to smile if they aren’t already doing so! Several rapid shots should be taken to make sure one or more of these photographs are excellent so make 100% sure your camera or phone lens is clean and splash free. A good photograph makes a great memoir so thought should be spent in this area to get at least one brilliant shot when any salmon shows up for an interview!