Puns for a catch photo caption
Keep it short. A caption works best when it's short and the photo does the talking, so pick one line and leave the weight for the comments.
- The one that didn't get away.
- Worth every missed alarm.
- Forty-eight hours for forty seconds. Worth it.
- Hook, line and finally.
- Mirror, mirror, on the mat.
- Netted it, then sat down for a bit.
- Came for the peace. Stayed for the pike.
- Scales don't lie. Anglers, on the other hand.
- Living my best fin.
Captions for a PB
A PB deserves a caption with a bit of pride in it. Keep the weight out of the caption if you'd rather not start an argument in the comments. A good PB caption sounds like you, so read it aloud before you post it and change anything you'd never say on the bank.
- New number. Same bank.
- Three winters for this one.
- Finally got the lump.
- Somebody wake me up.
- Still shaking. Fish is fine.
- Years of nights for one morning.
- Back in the water. On the wall soon.
Captions for a blank
Most sessions end without a fish. A good blank caption shows you can laugh about it, which anglers respect more than a brag. Everyone blanks. Not everyone admits it. A blank caption also tells your mates you were out there, which matters more than the fish on some days.
- Lovely sunrise, though.
- The fish were in. I was out.
- Practice session. Very thorough.
- Fed the lake. Lake said thanks.
- Forty-eight hours. One bream. One very happy bream.
- Next time.
- Out-thought by a bream.
Species puns
Match the pun to the fish in the photo, since a pike pun under a picture of a tench will get you corrected fast.
- Tench out of ten.
- Bream team.
- Roach trip.
- Pike and seek.
- Holy mackerel, look at that.
- Bass-ically the best day of the year.
- Trout of this world.
- Not a bad plaice to spend a Sunday.
- Carpe diem. Carp every diem.
Lines for a birthday or Christmas card
For a card, a warm line beats a clever one. Write it by hand. If you're not an angler yourself, keep it simple and let the photo or the print do the heavy lifting inside the card.
- Wishing you screaming runs and a wet mat.
- Here's to a lump in the new year.
- Happy birthday to the best angler I know, and the only one who'll admit to blanking.
- Merry Christmas. May your alarms sing and your flask stay hot.
- Happy Father's Day to the man who taught me to tie a knot and wait.
- Tight lines for the year ahead.
Lines for a retirement or a big birthday
Retirement means more time on the bank, and plenty of anglers have been counting the days. Keep it warm, and keep it short enough to fit under a photo.
- No more Monday mornings. Plenty more Monday dawns.
- Fifty years of early starts. Here's to fifty more.
- Retired from work. Not from the bank.
- Now you can fish the weekdays.
- The office's loss. The lake's gain.
Lines for a junior angler
A first fish deserves a caption that makes the child proud, not the grown-up. Keep it simple, and let them choose if they're old enough. Print the photo too, because years from now it's the one picture of that day they'll want to find again.
- First fish. Not the last.
- Caught it myself.
- Bigger than Dad's. Nearly.
- The start of something.
Sayings worth keeping
These aren't borrowed from anyone, so use them on a card or a caption without worrying who said them first.
- The fish goes back. The photo stays.
- Nobody remembers the blanks. Everybody remembers the bite.
- You don't catch a big fish. You wait for one.
- The best swim is the one you're sitting in.
- A good day's fishing is one you'd do again, fish or no fish.
The slang behind the jokes
Half the fun of a caption is the language. Angling Times keeps a good list. A lump is a big, thickset fish, especially a carp caught in the margins. A Barney Rubble is rhyming slang for a double, any fish of 10lb or more. A slab is a good common bream of around 4lb or more. Use them and other anglers will know you're one of them.
Keeping the venue quiet
A caption that names the water can bring a crowd. Many anglers keep their best waters to themselves, so leave the venue out unless it's a day ticket you're happy to share. Check the background too. A sign or a landmark behind the fish can give it away as surely as a caption. Crop it out before you post. The fish doesn't need an address. If someone asks where you caught it, a smile and the name of the county is usually answer enough.
A word on taste
Most anglers return what they catch and care how it's treated, so jokes about hurting fish tend to go down badly on the bank. We've left them out. Gags at the angler's expense are fair game. Always have been. Hold the fish low over a wet mat, as Angling Times advises. Then the caption can be as daft as you like.
A caption that lasts
A good caption lasts a day online, but the photo it sits under can hang on a wall for years if you print it. In Japan, anglers have long used gyotaku ink prints to record a catch, and Nippon.com traces the earliest known example to 1839. Print the catch photo as it is, or see it in a house style first. For the slang, Angling Times keeps a good list, and our fishing gifts page sorts ideas by budget. Our catch photo guide helps with the photo itself.
Craig Fearn runs Scale & Fin, a UK studio that prints anglers' catch photos and fish art to order. He writes the guides here, and every fact in them links to the body that published it.