Fish

Fishing images, or fishing pictures, are always popular. This no doubt reflects the overall popularity of the sport. Around one and a half million fishing licences are sold annually in the UK now. This compares with around one million sold in 2000. The centuries-old sport has certainly seen a strong resurgence of interest in recent years, and pictures of people engaged in the sport are just as popular too.

Someone wielding a rod and reel can be very photogenic. It seems we never tire of looking at fishing images of a man fly fishing, or someone sea fishing, or just a man holding a fish. Any kind of gone fishing pictures will spark an interest in many of us. It may recall a fishing trip of yesteryear, or memories of a happy childhood fishing in a river in the early morning before the sun gets too hot.

Fishing in a river is a very relaxing pastime. Millions enjoy it, either from a boat or from the riverbank. Rivers have the advantage over the sea of not having large waves crashing on to a shore. Rivers tend to be more peaceful and relaxing. Perhaps it is for this reason that they are often the subject of pictures taken to freeze the moment for eternity.

Calendars are a popular way to present pictures of anglers engaged in their sport. Angling clubs often produce an annual collection of fishing pictures of their various members, caught for posterity in a watery battle, or proudly showing off the day's catch. These are bought by family and friends, as well as by the anglers themselves. It seems that good photography is not nearly so important as a good angling memory.

How many times have we all seen a picture of someone proudly holding the largest of the day's catch up high? It is perhaps the most common of all the types of fishing memories. It's the one that didn't get away, the one that will always be remembered, recorded forever as an image of undeniable proof. And every year there are more and more of them produced, for all fishermen love to remember.

Fishing has often featured in art. Interestingly, one of the oldest examples of art known in the world and found at the Burrup Peninsula in northwestern Australia, features fish. The rock art is actually petroglyphs, closer to carvings than traditional art forms, but they date to around 30,000 years ago, and they feature various sea creatures, including fish. This means that fishing images can claim to be among the first known art subjects that early man chose to represent.