You have got to see this! Took my breath away....

[BaggieRich]

Gotta say I agree with BB. Either the photo is amazingly well doctored or it's genuine and one hell of a fish.

The shadow from behind the camera is consistant across the boat and onto the guys leg and the shadow of the fish is consistant across his leg and onto the front of the boat.

[fullcreel]

I thought it may have been an American fish, most things over there are bigger than over here.

[PikeHunter]

I'd say that's fake as well. If you look down the left side of the fish, you can see where it has been "cut out". Another thing, you can't see either of his hands! Not unless the fish has a handle?

[PikeHunter]

someone posted there with a link to a forum that had more pics of said fish, maybe it is real then? either way, i wouldnt have it anywhere near my face!

[upnorth1]

It's not a fake...someone mentioned earlier "trick camera lens"...eh, what's one of them????

As I work in the business of actually photographing fish - the fish has simply been pushed forward. As anyone who knows anything about photography will know, it's a beautiful sunny day and the depth-of-field is superb (take a look at the angler's face, it's just starting to go out of focus), suggesting that the photographer has fully focussed onto the fish.
I must admit I had my doubts, but, it's legit alright...

Sadly though, no-one seems to have mentioned that the fish probably died...it's being "chinned" by the angler, and if it is close to 50lb, then being held in such a way probably injured some internal organs terminally.
A fish of that size is just too heavy to be held that way, and it probably suffered too much trauma.

[headless]

If it is 50lb and he is lifting it with one hand he is one strong fella,

If it is being chined I would have thought the pikes mouth would be open slightly, I think it is impossible to lift a 50lb pike by the chin with one hand

The blokes right hand looks as though it is holding the pike lower down but I would have thought the pike body would shows signs of the stomach being distorted with the hand pressure

If I am wrong well done to that man

Darrell

[NICK R]

How long do you think it is ?

[Noel]

Check out my previous post.

Originally Posted by Noel

Goes to show how tricky it is to tell right from wrong. The fish is legit. It was caught last year in the Alps in France and was returned safe and well .

It was caught by a guy called Sylvain Legendre who is a top lure angler. He took a quite a few self-take photos on a timer as he was fishing alone in the boat (hence the weird camera angles etc). The shadow is from something in the boat.

Anyway, it measured 137cm. He didn't have scales with him (in Europe the length is often measured rather than the weight). 137cm = roughly around the 50lb mark but it's very hard to guess exactly.

Few more photos here:

http://galerie-peche.forumactif.com/...ance-t7114.htm