How to make a good fishing photo?

Fishing is all about those magical moments when we forget about the whole world. Unique feelings after catching a big fish we hunted for months or beautiful sunsets with a rod in your hand in the favorite spot. For me those moments last forever. I remember a big carp I caught in the middle of the night in the full moon light 10 years ago. 

The best way to preserve those memories is to make a photo. Sounds easy - today everyone has a good camera in the mobile phone and we make dozens of photos every time we see something interesting. Unfortunately it is not that easy to make a GOOD photo. I'm sure most of you can tell that there is the difference between his photo and photos we can find i.e. in fishing magazines.  For me it is a big challenge to make a decent photo hen you have only few seconds if you want to release your catch in a good health. Im not a top expert in this matter but I wanted to share with you some of my observations. If you have something to add in this matter please leave a comment.

Most important thing that makes a great photo is its ability to convey emotions. One way of achieving this is tightening the shot. Focusing on one element prevents viewer from distraction and emphasizes one particular scene or moment.

 Next important thing is taking a photo of an angler with his trophy. This simple shot can be very tricky. First of all NEVER take a photo of a dead fish. Instead of good emotions your photo will show nothing but sadness, a nice scene with the death in the background... Fish should be alive with lot of colors in a bright light with no grass, dirt or blood on it. Angler should smile and h should hold a fish in the way that allows to hide his hands and fingers as much as possible.

Another great way to take a photo of an angler with his trophy is to take a shot of some action - like landing or releasing the fish.  Photo like this will look a frame from a movie. It will be natural and full of emotions.

Personally I lake to take a landscape photo the view of my favorite fishery in different seasons, time of the day and weather reminds me of all moments I spent fishing alone or with my friends. Some of them were printed and now they are hanging on my wall. 

My photos aren't perfect, but I'm really happy with them. If there is something I don't like about them I try to correct it. Although photography as well as fishing is a field where you will never achieve perfection... and that is the most addictive in it.  

Zanders in the middle of the mountains...

I have to big passions that drives me to leave my home as often as possible to look or adventure. One of them is fishing. This hobby started for my my father when he took my fishing for the first time long time ago. No we still go fishing together and those moments are really important for me.

Second hobby is trekking in the mountains. This passion began with meeting my wife. She loves mountains and everything related with them.  Now we spend almost all of our vacations in the mountains.

Needless to say, that if it was possible to connect those two passions I didn't have to think twice. Fishing for my favorite fish - zander in a big dam reservoir on a mountain river (Dunajec), surrounded by mountains (Pieniny and Gorce) was like the best idea ever.

Czorsztyn is a huge and deep artificial lake with clear water and lot of different species of fish. You can catch here natural lake species like pike, perch, zander, bream, roach, but also species that usually live in mountain streams and rivers like trout or danube salmon. My goal was of course zander and this year I visited Czorsztyn a few times with success. Fishing in deep so lake is different than fishing in my other fisheries. Normally I look for zanders in shallow spots: 2 - 5m (6ft - 15ft) but now my shallow spots were 10m (30ft) and sometimes I had to fish much deeper - up to 25m (75ft). I had to learn a lot, but many bites and beautiful zanders rewarded everything and I know I will fish n Czorsztyn lake more often next year!  

Night spinning - fishing for big predators

Spinning at night.

There is nothing more magical than waiting with your rod, until the sun goes down and everything around turns grey and darkness falls. This is the time of big predators going for their prey. This is the time when big river becomes wilder, more mysterious and at any time you can expect a powerful hit at the end of your line. Spinning at night is magical... For me personally it is much more difficult for so many reasons, than spinning during the day, but I love this kind of fishing. And here is why! 

It will start soon...

First of all, if you want to achieve success you need to know your fishery like your own pocket. You need to know exactly how to approach the fishery without any noise, you need to know where to stand to be comfortable and with the possibility of landing a big fish without using light (It scares the fish and you can forget about more bites). You need to know exactly what lure you should use and how and where to cast it. There is no place for trying. Every cast has to be perfect. At night You will cach much less fish than during sunrise or sunset but they give you much more excitement and usually they are bigger...

In Poland at night we usually hunt for wells (HUGE European catfish) and zander (European cousin of walleye). Those are really big fish that feed at night naturally. We use mostly crankbaits (for wells) and slashbaits, minnows for zander. Fishery should be shallow with looooot of prey and the angler should be patient and ready to wait few hours until predators arrive to feed. If you won't catch your main target you can expect many different predators come for your bite - like barbel, asp, pike or chub. Everything can happen at night.

Big Asp caught at night

Not every trip will be successful, but believe me, that it is worth to try and spend a few night spinning at night. If you finally get your bite it will be unforgettable and you won't stop trying. Night fishing is magical. Period! 

Zander at midnight

How to catch a zander or walleye?

Depending on where you live (Northern America or Europe) you have a beautiful and smart fish in your waters. This fish grows big and anglers loves to catch it especially using different artificial lures like crankbaits, slashbaits or softlures. In America you have walleye and his close cousin (slightly bigger) lives in Europe.

Both fish live in similar habitats, they have common feeding patterns and habits. In Poland we hunt for zander usually using boats in big dam reservoirs or fishing from the shore in big rivers like Odra or Vistula. Both approaches are very different and very attractive for me. 

I love to starting my boat at summer sunrise in the morning fog to start fishing on the shallows near to the shore where zanders come to feed at night and are easy to catch in the first hours of the day. I usually look for places 1m(3ft) to 3m(9ft) deep and use softlures on very light jig heads - 5g - 10g. If zanders are there you can ecspect a lot of bites at any minute. If after 1 - 2 hours of trying ou won't find them usually you should move to deeper places with lot of underwater structures or sunken trees etc. Those are places where zanders spent the day hiding in the shadow (they don't like bright light) and anglers are able to catch them all day long in short periods of activity. Depending on the depth of your fishery you should look for places 4m(12ft)- 15m(45ft) deep and use much heavier jig heads (10g - 40g). If you use thin braided line you can use lighter jig head - fishing is beeing more finesse and also more effective if zanders aren't very active.

 Fishing for zander in the river is for me the whole new thing. People fish for zander in rivers during whole season, but for me it starts with the first frost - usually in late september or october. I look for deep spots with some current, and I'm using big softlures on heavy jig heads trying to catch a zander especially during the dusk and down, but also during the whole day if it is cloudy and dark. Lot of people are catching zanders in rivers also at night. I'm trying that sometimes also with some result, but this method is slightly different - you look for shallow spots near to the shore were predators are hunting for the prey. Best lure to use in this conditions are long and thin (imitating bleak) slashbaits or crankbaits.

There is many ways to catch a zander, I presented only my observations and expieriences that I gained during more than 10 years of hunting for big zanders. I caught thousands of those beautiful fishes with lot of big ones more than 90cm (36in) and 7kg (15lb). If you have ANY question or you would like to catch a big zander in polish waters - write me in the comment or on my e-mail.

And for the end - here are some affordable (with free sipping) effective zander lures tested by me. This way you won't have to invest a lot of money and you will be able to try zander/walleye fishing on your own

AliExpress.com Product - MEREDITH 5PCS 10.5g 10cm Lures Fishing Lures soft Fishing Baits Cannibal Soft Lures Shads Fishing Fish JX62-10 AliExpress.com Product - YTQHXY 65mm 1.9g 20Pcs/lot Wobblers Fishing Lures Swimbaits Silicone Soft Bait Double Color Carp Artificial Soft Lure YE-93

Good Fishing deals from Aliexpress

Recently I discovered an awesome way to buy good quality an very cheap fishing gear. Aliexpress is a Chinese portal where you can buy almost everything... including thousands of fishing accessories. What is even more important - shipping is worldwide free for almost all stuff!!!! I've ordered alreadny more thn 100 different things and I wanted to show you some of my best purchases...


 1) Very nice slashbait - very smilar to Rapala X-Rap, but 10 times cheaper - trebles are not the best quality, but the action is for sure very good.

 AliExpress.com Product - 1pcs Fishing Lures 3D Eyes Floating Laser Minnow Hard Aritificial Wobblers Crankbait Plastic Baits Pesca Isca 11cm 13.5g


2) Artificial red maggot Good quality and very cheap rubber bugs. I use them a lot for UL fishing for different species

AliExpress.com Product - Meredith Promotion HOT SELL 20PCS 2cm 0.38g Maggot Grub Soft Lure Baits Smell Worms Glow Shrimps Fishing Lures JXC02-2

3) Nice softbaits for zander (walleye) perch and other predators :) Very good quality for those and because of this price I'm not affraid of casting them ino sunken trees...

AliExpress.com Product - Goture Soft Lure Swimbait 5pcs/lot 8.5cm/13g Fishing Artificial Soft Baits Black-white Wobbler Fishing Tackle