My 9-7 Smallmouth Bass!!

[soflabasser]

7 minutes ago, Burros said:

It is a very nice fish and I’m not questioning the weight, congrats however I do notice a bit of long arming in the pic? Just saying.

Almost every single bass fisherman I know longarms a bass. That's why it's best to have a picture of weighing the bass( with the whole bass showing in the picture) or at the very least pictures showing the length and girth of the bass being measured. Regardless the OP's smallie is a beauty of a fish that is bigger than most people's best bass caught from public waters without a fishing guide.

[burrows]

Just now, soflabasser said:

Almost every single bass fisherman I know longarms a bass. That's why it's best to have a picture of weighing the bass( with the whole bass showing in the picture) or at the very least pictures showing the length and girth of the bass being measured. Regardless the OP's smallie is a beauty of a fish that is bigger than most people's best bass caught from public waters without a guide.

Agreed no doubt!

[Brian Schram]

23 minutes ago, Burros said:

It is a very nice fish and I’m not questioning the weight, congrats however I do notice a bit of long arming in the pic? Just saying.

I do tend to long arm fish often. It comes from John Gillespie telling at me to hold his fish out on the TV show lol. BUT I will say this and this is my opinion on long arming. I think full extension is too much. I like about half way where there is a little bend in your arm. This hold really showcases the fish which is what you are trying to do. I have seen some horrible pics of giant fish and I just feel bad. Fisherman are so worried about being called out for long arming that they compromise and end up with a horrible photo of a trophy fish. You shouldn't ever be afraid to hold your fish out proud because of people. You know how big your fish is and you always will. And like I said fingers never lie!! 

6 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Hey Brian, that's a pic of a 5lb fish I caught on Saturday & posted here.  

While I like posting my reports, pic & videos on this forum, it seems the BR membership has varying opinions regarding most every aspect of any fish catch; including but not limited to length, size, weight, how to hold it, how, when & where it may have been caught.  Not necessarily hateful, just the way it is.   

The feeling that we need to "defend' what's posted is a natural one, but IMO, is by & large unproductive.  

 While I really enjoy fielding & answering questions regarding anything I've included here, and do so willingly & quite often, I prefer to simply ignore those who, without really knowing anything about me, question my integrity.  

Once again - nice fish.

A-Jay

  

Hey A-Jay thanks for the message!! Yes you're fish is a beauty 5 lber and it looks like a 5lber too. Even though holding it out (like many of us do) I can see that it is a 5lb smallmouth. Yes I hear you there it was just mind blowing that somebody would call my fish a 5ish fish lol. Even a 6ish fish. So I had to say something but I will leave it alone now and let the people that want to enjoy the fish enjoying. And the people that do not well they are allowed to have their opinion

[1simplemann]

Well that clears things up. Brian perhaps you should have taken a pic while it was on the scale. That usually silences the doubter's.  Congrats on the fish of a lifetime!

[FryDog62]

On 5/3/2018 at 10:24 PM, slonezp said:

 

Get the Frabill!  GET THE FRABILL!!!

[JG233]

Great fish - ignore the people who want to talk size.

[BassNJake]

That is an AWESOME fish Brian!!

 

How about some thoughts on Ish or Pro's fishing the opens? ?

[jr231]

Man I would have taken 20+ pictures of me with that bass.   Idk how you could take only 2 .. I'd held that thing every which way. I understand getting her back in the water . But it takes mili seconds to snap continuous photos. 

[12poundbass]

On 5/6/2018 at 9:18 PM, Burros said:

however I do notice a bit of long arming in the pic? Just saying.

Who doesn't? I don't know a single angler who doesn't. I'm a hunter and if I harvest a big enough animal I'm going to get the right angle to make it look bigger. It's lying or deceitful, it's taking advantage of angles and situations. Nothing wrong with that. 

[burrows]

4 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Who doesn't? I don't know a single angler who doesn't. I'm a hunter and if I harvest a big enough animal I'm going to get the right angle to make it look bigger. It's lying or deceitful, it's taking advantage of angles and situations. Nothing wrong with that. 

I ment it as a joke I was being humorous.?

[J Francho]

Congrats, Brian!  Helluva fish!

 

So, long arming a fish.  It's called Perspective Distortion.  I'm a photographer, did so professionally for a number of years, as in earned a very large portion of my living doing it.  Long arming alone will not enhance the object in the foreground.  You have to be close enough to affect a disproportional ratio between camera to foreground object, and foreground object to background object.  This easy to do with a wider angle lens, such as what A-Jay used.  If you can get it so the distance between the fish and camera is less than the distance between the fish and the person, the fish will *appear* larger in the frame.  In Brian's picture, This isn't the case, and his fish is really about that big.  Most camera phones without a zoom use a "normal" focal length lens, or in the world of a full frame dSLR, a 50mm.  It has almost no magnification.  I'm thinking Brian's was shot with a camera phone.  GoPro cameras almost always use a shorter, wide angle focal length.  A-Jay's looks like a still capture from a GoPro. 

 

That's why you can do the old "knuckle test" and get the results shown above.  The perspective distortion is greater on A-Jay's picture than Brian's.

 

And for the record, this not meant to disrespect anyone's catch.  Personally, I don't why anyone that has a scale, witnesses, and personal integrity would hold a fish close to their body to satisfy all the people flexing their keyboard muscles that will attempt to discredit the poster.

 

If you really want more on this watching paint dry topic try the wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_(photography)

 

If you want to look at cool pictures, here's me straight arming a 5-12 L. Erie smallmouth.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-p7TzQPF/0/19da1000/XL/20101113-ErieWithNoel-08-XL.jpg

 

Here's my buddy totally ruining a picture of an 8-5 largemouth by NOT straight arming.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-VtpJ3Bv/0/5866312c/XL/IMG_0007-XL.jpg

 

Again, Congrats, Brian.  Awesome catch, and thanks for coming up and posting the picture.

[12poundbass]

5 hours ago, Burros said:

I ment it as a joke I was being humorous.?

A well placed emoji clears up confusion. ?

[fissure_man]

4 hours ago, J Francho said:

 If you can get it so the distance between the fish and camera is less than the distance between the fish and the person, the fish will *appear* larger in the frame.  In Brian's picture, This isn't the case, and his fish is really about that big. 

Err, if that's really is the case I think Brian needs to get his scale checked.  That fish *appears* to be about this size of his torso - if that's not a result of perspective it should weigh at least 30 lbs to my eye. lol  

 

But who cares? It's a great fish!

 

It looks super clean and healthy, maybe it has some growing left to do...?

 

[Brian Schram]

11 hours ago, 1simplemann said:

Well that clears things up. Brian perhaps you should have taken a pic while it was on the scale. That usually silences the doubter's.  Congrats on the fish of a lifetime!

Heck yes I did!! 

5 hours ago, J Francho said:

Congrats, Brian!  Helluva fish!

 

So, long arming a fish.  It's called Perspective Distortion.  I'm a photographer, did so professionally for a number of years, as in earned a very large portion of my living doing it.  Long arming alone will not enhance the object in the foreground.  You have to be close enough to affect a disproportional ratio between camera to foreground object, and foreground object to background object.  This easy to do with a wider angle lens, such as what A-Jay used.  If you can get it so the distance between the fish and camera is less than the distance between the fish and the person, the fish will *appear* larger in the frame.  In Brian's picture, This isn't the case, and his fish is really about that big.  Most camera phones without a zoom use a "normal" focal length lens, or in the world of a full frame dSLR, a 50mm.  It has almost no magnification.  I'm thinking Brian's was shot with a camera phone.  GoPro cameras almost always use a shorter, wide angle focal length.  A-Jay's looks like a still capture from a GoPro. 

 

That's why you can do the old "knuckle test" and get the results shown above.  The perspective distortion is greater on A-Jay's picture than Brian's.

 

And for the record, this not meant to disrespect anyone's catch.  Personally, I don't why anyone that has a scale, witnesses, and personal integrity would hold a fish close to their body to satisfy all the people flexing their keyboard muscles that will attempt to discredit the poster.

 

If you really want more on this watching paint dry topic try the wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_(photography)

 

If you want to look at cool pictures, here's me straight arming a 5-12 L. Erie smallmouth.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-p7TzQPF/0/19da1000/XL/20101113-ErieWithNoel-08-XL.jpg

 

Here's my buddy totally ruining a picture of an 8-5 largemouth by NOT straight arming.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-VtpJ3Bv/0/5866312c/XL/IMG_0007-XL.jpg

 

Again, Congrats, Brian.  Awesome catch, and thanks for coming up and posting the picture.

Yes yes YES!! I try to tell my buddy fisherman this its OK to hold your fish out like you're actually proud of it. I ALWAYS hold my fish out and yes you are correct it was a phone camera. The only thing we had. But I love this and I'm definitely going to share it because too many fisherman completely ruin trophy fish pics because they are afraid of the long arm theory. 

17 minutes ago, fissure_man said:

Err, if that's really is the case I think Brian needs to get his scale checked.  That fish *appears* to be about this size of his torso - if that's not a result of perspective it should weigh at least 30 lbs to my eye. lol  

 

But who cares? It's a great fish!

 

It looks super clean and healthy, maybe it has some growing left to do...?

 

Lol 

[Columbia Craw]

Wonderful catch.  A once in a lifetime fish. Congratulations !

[Brian Schram]

On 5/8/2018 at 6:11 AM, BassNJake said:

That is an AWESOME fish Brian!!

 

How about some thoughts on Ish or Pro's fishing the opens? ?

Lmao open a new can of worms shall we?? Now that their is not an instant birth into the Classic from opens have you noticed how many Elites are fishing them??!! 

14 hours ago, Columbia Craw said:

Wonderful catch.  A once in a lifetime fish. Congratulations !

Thanks man appreciate it and yes I don't believe that I will see let alone catch another one like that. But who knows cuz that's what I said last fall when I lost one not too much smaller than that one lol

[roadwarrior]

 

Really...An amazing fish!

[Captain America]

Why the heck would anyone take a photo of a fish without long arming?? Congrats on the fish, man!