Social Media

What should you post

Richard Sherriff

Afew years ago some of the now popular recreational targeted species such as kingfish, snapper and whiting were the best-kept secrets of a few recreational fishers who enjoyed catching them at locations that were understandable only known to them.

I can remember back in the early 1980’s the late Bob Gladow and Joe Sankey catching yellowtail kingfish at the Low Head trolling around the last red seaward channel marker and between there and Hebe Reef trolling fresh garfish on ganged hooks.

Bob used to catch garfish the night before and said this was the magic bait for the speciestrolled around the beacon the opening weekend of the deer season.

Joe showed me pictures of 30 and 40-lb kingfish which reached from the ground up to his waist. On one trip and using his favoured 100lb corded line on a game fishing rod and reel he was spooled, nearly pulled out of the boat and the seat on the reel bent out of shape as the line ran out. They kept this a close secret only exposing it (to the best of my knowledge) to my friend Tony McGuire and myself and we were sworn to secrecy. No doubt others anglers may have been targeting these fish in secret and others were getting spooled while fishing for salmon not knowing a kingfish was the culprit. Tony and I caught a few there and also around Waterhouse Island, they were great fun to catch, extremely good fighters and rat cunning, at times as they would hit the lures and then the school would disappear in a flash. In NSW they call these fish thugs they fight so hard. This secrecy all changed with the advent of social media and the posting of pictures of anglers’ success and locations being posted along with the species becoming more prolific in our waters.

Facebook and Instagram are media where daily we can get our fishing news, whereas in the past we relied on a weekly article in the local press with the writer relying on getting snippets from angler feedback. Publishing and posting fishing pictures on social media pages and managed sites gives anglers a great opportunity to share their successes with others and let’s face it the excitement of catching a good fish never wanes regardless of age or experience.

When posting pictures it’s important to remember that the audience that sees it is varied and consideration needs to be given to the presentation to not offend.

Always ensure before snapping your catch it is still fresh looking and is held or positioned in a manner that compliments it in the picture. Thrown on the deck of a boat or ramp in a pool of blood is not a good look. The fish is the hero and will be what attracts the reader’s attention.

Some don’t want to give the location away and ensure the background is blurred - or excluded.

The size of the pictured fish does not matter but the freshness does, presentation and colour exposure are important. Best pick one or two of your best fish and where a bag limit is five and you show fifteen always indicate it’s a shared catch. Reader will comment if it appears someone is exceeding the bag limit and/or is being greedy.

Calamari makes for a good picture while alive, they are such interesting creatures. However, posting pictures of dead colourless squid does not inspire. Neither does picturing a large catch of freshwater trout laid out with broken necks. Trout being held correctly, pictured when freshly caught and glistening with water makes a great picture to publish, the same goes for any species, get rid of the blood and guts and present it in a manner that promotes our recreational fishing sport to all. Whilst no expert, I have included a few pictures as examples of good photo presentations.