I swear I’ve written about these before…but I searched the blog and I guess I never did. Maybe it was on Facebook or perhaps even a fishing forum, who knows.
Anyway, I’ve been somewhat intrigued by the concept of these photography tanks (Photariums) for quite some time, probably as long as I’ve been fishing.
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| Photo: Wild Fish Conservancy |
The benefits are pretty clear. The fish stays in the water allowing you time to observe, measure, and get some pretty good photos of it. I kind of geek out at stuff like that. Would imagine it makes the “Keep ’em Wet“ crowd happy too.
In addition to the retail versions available through the Wild Fish Conservancy, there are plenty of homemade versions floating around on blogs and forums if you look hard enough. Heck, one doesn’t even have to look that hard, Photariums have even made the rounds on prominent websites from time to time, I’ve just personally never taken the plunge.
I guess it comes down to price and necessity. You know, the whole, “do I really need it, do I want to spend that much on it, and am I really going to use it?” Even the smallest one from the WFC store runs about $60. Eh, at least I tend to catch small trout.
Nevertheless, I still think they’re pretty cool. Maybe I’ll finally break down this year.
Or maybe not.
So what do you think about toting around a plexiglass rectangle when you go fishing?
There's companies on the internet that will make custom acrylic boxes to your size specs for about $48 and you can probably find a length of ruler tape to stick on the outside of the box for measurement. I, however, don't want to carry around another item with me while I fish. I'll just keep the fish in the water, in the net like I've always done.
I like the theory but I know in reality this type of thing will cause even more stress to the fish. People will be fiddling with the fish more than they normally do to get a pic.
I've been researching different options. However, like you, I may just stick with the net. We'll see…
Maybe, don't know the science behind it. End of day, fast catch & release is always the best option.
Great post Mike! I drew some negative criticism when I wrote about a similar box back in 2012. It will be interesting to see if opinions have changed since then: http://tenkaratalk.com/2012/04/tenkara-release-box/
Ah, I remember that post Jason… Good stuff. Thanks for posting the link. Side note (since we're posting links), found out Chris Stewart also sells some 3×5 photo tanks on his TenkaraBum site reasonably inexpensively for those that might be interested. Might be a bit small for most trout, but for micros…http://www.tenkarabum.com/3×5-photo-tank.html