Smart phones are the latest must-have for techies and average Joes alike, and anglers have understandably jumped on the bandwagon. The pocket-size, seem­ingly do-all gadgets not only serve the age-old purpose of communication, but can also be loaded with apps you can use to monitor weather, find your way on the water, and much more.

But for all their abilities, they are not cameras. Sure, they might have camera-like features, but the images they cap­ture are terrible despite how they might appear on a phone or computer screen.

Unfortunately, this message isn’t get­ting out to anglers, and we’ve seen proof of it here at Club Headquarters. Recently, as much as 90 percent of Member Photos emailed to editors@fishingclub.com have been taken on cell phones, and none of them can be printed in the magazine— they’re simply too low resolution.

So, whether you want to get a photo published, or just want a quality image to put in a frame, ditch the phone and go back to what works—a real digital cam­era. These days, the technology has advanced to the point that even the most inexpensive models take images that are of ample size for use in the magazine.

And when you do shoot photos of your trophy fish, use the highest resolution set­ting possible, and email the full-size files pulled directly off the camera’s memory card to editors@fishingclub.com.

If you insist on putting your smart phone to work, use it to call your friend and have them meet you at the lake with a real camera.