With the dismal returns to the pike rods over the last two or three winters I'm not looking forward to more waterside inactivity. I suppose I should have a change and try for something else during the autumn. Get myself on a river somewhere perhaps, or look for some perch fishing not too far from home. Maybe have another try for that sturgeon if it's still around. If only I could get myself motivated...
My mater Nige phoned me the other week to ask if I had any pictures of his brace of thirty pound pike in my files. This prompted me to drag my slides out and root through them. Inevitably it became a descent into nostalgic memories and I ended up scanning a load of pictures of other fish and scenes. Those golden days came flooding back. Travelling all over the place at daft hours of the day and night. Long walks, boat trips in precarious little boats, weather fair and foul. And what looked like pike galore.
Something struck me from a photographic angle. The quality of the scanned
pictures was often pretty dire. At least when compared to what I expect to see
from a modern digital camera. This reflects what the late James Holgate told
me about how digital cameras had improved the quality of pictures submitted to
accompany articles in Pike and Predators. Film shots had often been dodgy in
the extreme. My slides being more than acceptable at the time makes it obvious
how bad the bad pictures were! Compact digital cameras not only made taking
pictures easier, the technology was better than in cheap film cameras, but
even the jpeg files were more easily corrected/improved for publication.
Judging by the photos I see on fishing forums these days, however, things have gone full circle. Most anglers appear to be using their phones to take fishing pictures now. While the results look great on a phone screen, when blown up (either on a larger screen or for print) they can look worse than pictures from film. Strangely enough Nige said that he was looking for a new camera as the one he has is getting on a bit. The reason he wants a camera is that it makes better prints than his phone.
Here are some of the photos I scanned. I might scan some more during the long winter nights.
