Still, Please

My husband loves to fish. That’s fine! I understand completely, as I do, too. Unfortunately, right now, I’m still recovering from knee surgery. Okay, so I’m at the tail end of my recovery but having my knee still somewhat stiff, I’m hesitant to get on the boat.

Hence, my husband, Rich goes out with his friends. I have no problem with that. I feel there is no reason he can’t go out for a day on the water with his buddies to catch those elusive marine creatures.

You’re wondering what, then my problem. If I’m okay that he goes fishing a few times a week, that really isn’t a problem. However, there is one and he and his buddies, without realizing, always manage to create it.

Okay, then, here’s the deal. Before I get to the “problem”, I’ll explain why it exists in the first place.

We belong to a local fishing club. Many of our friends and neighbors are also members.

Most often, we practice the catch and release method of fishing. It isn’t that we don’t like to eat fish, but down here in Florida, there is a moratorium on certain fish. There are a number of reasons for this: spawning season, the too hot water has driven many species away to look for deeper water where it isn’t as warm, over-fishing, careless fishing, red tide – and the list goes on.

The Federal Wildlife Commission is trying to improve the fish population by placing the moratorium. No one can predict what species will take your bait; just be prepared to remove the hook and release the fish as soon as possible.

Our fishing club has monthly contests. Whoever catches the biggest fish, wins – but the fish can’t be just any species. For instance, the month of September, we’ll target spotted seatrout. In October, we’ll target redfish (red drum). If you catch the largest targeted species for that month, you win that award. Not only do you get to go out on the water and have a great time fishing, but you get the opportunity to earn a reward, which could be a gift card to a local bait and tackle shop, or possibly a gift card to a local restaurant.

Our fishing club can boast a membership of over 200 couples. I say couples rather than “anglers” because many spouses don’t fish. I use the word spouses because we have women that love to fish, while their husbands don’t. Most of our anglers are men with several of the wives fishing along side them. Yes, we are definitely a mixed breed anglers.

The Board of Directors of our fishing club realize that many of our members enjoy eating their freshly caught fish but will always emphasize the rules of the FWC and any moratoriums they declare.

Now, you’re wondering how we can prove what we caught if we can’t keep the fish. That’s easy. We take pictures.

And here is where the dilemma lays.

Very few members fish solo. Makes taking a photo of you with your fish easy. Yes, unless it’s a shark or a tarpon, your face needs to be in the photo with the fish you caught.

Several our members have phones with cameras that have timers for selfies. Again, not a problem. Some with have small cameras with the included timer.

In June and July, my husband and his friends went on two more fishing excursions. We were planning on visiting our kids in July and the guys wanted to get in some fishing before we left. While they’re not fussy about what species they catch, they adhere to the FWC guidelines about catch and release.

After approximately five hours, they arrived back home each boasting the huge shark they caught (and released) and were able to take pictures as soon as they were able to pull the fish close to the boat.

Normally, when my husband catches a fish, he’ll hand me his phone immediately and ask me to download it into the computer, then send it to the fishing club for them to keep track of the earned points for the next award. This time, since we were busy packing for our two-week trip, he forgot. This time, I was just as busy and didn’t think to remind him.

Our fishing club doesn’t hold meetings in July and August (we take the summer off), therefore, at our September meeting, our records keeper reminded my husband to send in his catch from June, so he’d get credit for it.

Naturally, my husband told me this the following day. Taking his phone, I searched all the photos for June. No fish! I brought up the folders for each month. No fish! We called our friend wondering if maybe he’d gotten the phones mixed up and the fish was on his phone. No luck!

As a last resort, I proceeded to use the “search” feature and typed in fish.

Holy fins, I found it! However, it was not under photos. I was under videos. The masterminds of the quick-release dilemma never checked to see which button on the camera they pressed. Instead of having a still photo that would have been easy for me to extract and send, I had to remind myself how to extract a still image from a video. I’d done this a few times before but not recently.

I downloaded the video to my photo-editing program and sat for thirty minutes trying to figure out what to do. Which icon do I hit? I wasn’t sure but I was determined to try.

Finally, I found the instructions on how to extract a frame. Viola!! I had a still photo.

After showing it to my husband so he could decide if that was the still he wanted to use, I sent it on its way.

I reminded him he that I bought him a camera a few years ago to use on the boat. His excuse for not using it? Too much glare on the back screen to see what picture you’re taking.

Now, I’ll have to see if I can find a cheap camera (I won’t buy him anything expensive) to use on the boat that has the small eye-viewfinder rather than the large screen on the back.

He said he’d rather use his phone. I told him either I buy a new camera and he uses it or I’m going fishing with him, and his friends and I’ll take the pictures.

We decided on the new camera which I hope to buy this weekend.

OMG… after dealing with these not-so-technically-adept anglers, I’m ready for a drink!