What's a narwhal?

Leave it to our friend Nan to suggest that I had caught a narwhal!! I guess being from Hawaii she knows what a narwhal is and could see the resemblance of a narwhal in my rainbow trout - with the fly rod appearing to protrude as a tooth from it's mouth! (I give her credit for knowing a lot of odd facts because she's from Hawaii.)

When she left us the comment a couple days ago I said, "What the heck is a narwhal? Anyone should know by now that this is a rainbow?" And Rick had the biggest out-loud laugh because he knew what a narwhal was and said "She's right you know!" And he said good thing I didn't post the first photos he took. Read on...

A narwhal is a small whale weighing 2000 to 3000 pounds with a 3 to 10 foot long tooth that grows on the left side of it's mouth. Sometimes they have 2 of these unicorn-like tusks. Narwhals live in the northern most Arctic waters. (This photo is from the National Geographic website with credit given to Paul Nicklen)

When I caught this fish I took it to shallow water to release it. It was a good size, about 22", and Rick was close by to snap a photo with his Sony camera. I didn't want to lay my rod down in the muddy muck of river bank that is drying up, so I put my fly rod in my teeth. I have to give credit to Eric for teaching me that manly trick, although it is a favorite pose for many fishermen. I was feeling quite clumsy with the rod-in-teeth and the fish-in-hand. I didn't want to drop the fish nor the rod.

I managed to get the rod under my arm for another photo, one I posted a couple days ago, resulting in the rod appearing to protrude from the fish's mouth. I thought that was better than it protruding from my mouth.

This just reinforces a lesson of photography! Pay attention to what is in the background for fear that a tree might be growing out of the top of your subject's head. Or a long-stick-like tooth might appear to be growing from the mouth.