They have heard the countless stories interspersed with Catch & Release holiness that excuses physical proof. Buddies and in-laws whistle appreciatively while stories of fish hooked, held, and lost are offered with grainy digital images featuring out-thrust arms that skew proportions, motion blur where fish should be – and large splashes where the shy yet agile quarry anticipated the shutter and escaped with little record …

Modern angling photography requires even more time out of the water for intricate poses that flash gang sign and colors, risks suffocation in favor of message, and flirts with the backlash of readers angry when the subject is seen downstream belly up …

Rifle poses and the one-handed grip featuring a 22” fish whose spleen is  annealed to it’s spinal column predominate. Naturally they were dropped two or three times before the fetching colors shown perfectly.

If the photograph is our only record, we certainly picked a hideous subject to validate our immortality.

What’s needed is a good stable prop we can use out of the water that will survive the demands of our vanity, the gut squeezes and accidental drops, and can be tucked into the vest for better light, better backdrop, or until the beercans can be policed from the riverbank.

The Paper Trout, the Perfect Crime.

At right, a rare Manchurian Trout caught in local waters. While the fisheries biologists postulate its origins and search for the brood stock, we can yank stretch and Vogue the little devil into anything necessary for the Six O’clock news.

Download and assemble at your leisure, or offload onto the company plotter for easy expansion to any size or weight necessary.

Tags: Paper trout of Japan, angling photography, manchurian trout, crash dummy trout, photography props, catch & release, trout fishing