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Photos

Amazing Underwater Game-Fish Portraits by Jason Arnold

Jason Arnold gets up close and personal with these game-fish.

By Doug Olander

May 8, 2014

01 - redfish chases lure, 00000000_xx_8768_16c1f60691b0ae9e5f237f564d9cc900.jpg — In a few years, Jason Arnold, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has established himself as one of the premier fish/fishing photographers in the United States. Along with some outstanding jumping-fish and fishing-action photography, Arnold is a master at capturing amazing underwater portraits of game fish, including live-action shots of predators pursuing lures. There is a trick to this, but we are sworn to secrecy upon penalty of death or worse; however, we can say definitively that neither fish nor lure are photoshopped or placed into the photos. Fish and lure are shot as you see 'em. This gallery represents an "editors' favorites" of a sort, since we were given the opportunity to cherry-pick these 27 images as our faves from his current stock. Arnold's work has been widely published; he is a regular contributor to Sport Fishing magazine, including several covers. Shown here: A bull red chases down a Yo-Zuri 3D Minnow near Whipray Key in Florida Bay.

02 - sea 0002 dolphin0909.jpg — A big male mahi prowls the blue waters of the Gulf Stream in the spring off Fort Lauderdale.JASON ARNOLD

03 - kingfish chases jig, jau_8555.jpg — A kingfish is hot on the tail of a Daiwa speed jig cranked up off southern Florida.

04 - bluefish 015.jpg — While photographing the fall mullet run off Florida’s Atlantic coast, Arnold spotted bluefish following the forage fish and added some blues to his portfolio.JASON ARNOLD

05 - bull shark, 00000000_xx_2660_b3c8b55fe587f6cd21acaad68c251d10.jpg — What lurks in the gathering dark.... Arnold’s flash catches the dorsal surface of a bull shark cruising in water barely deep enough to cover its back off Mississippi’s Cat Island as Okuma’s John Bretza pedals past in his Hobie kayak.JASON ARNOLD

06 - red grouper chases jig, jau_9198.jpg — Rushing up from the bottom, a red grouper would make a meal of a metal jig off Southeast Florida.

07 - flounder.jpg — Startled, this flounder dashes out from under the sands of Jupiter Inlet, where it had been buried, waiting to pounce on prey.JASON ARNOLD

08 - sea0002thresher1019.jpg — Although he’d hoped to get some swordfish photos this day, Arnold wasn’t disappointed at the chance to shoot a 12-foot bigeye thresher shark.JASON ARNOLD

09 - mullet 054.jpg — A massive wall of mullet confronts the photographer off Florida’s east coast. “It was weird since they were offshore,” he says — “a five-acre school in 90 feet of water. Also weird: Nothing was chasing them.”JASON ARNOLD

10 - jason arnold kingfish.jpg — Photo looking down a kingfish’s maw reminds us why we need to use wire.Jason Arnold

11 - sea0002sailfish-1025.jpg — Just released, this sail shows his colors with a raised dorsal.JASON ARNOLD

12 - snook 00000000_xx_1776a_f05cc73e0c55060dd3826bc061fb7b96.jpg — A small, spawning snook tracks a Berkley Powerbait at high tide (providing exceptionally clean water in Jupiter Inlet).

14 - bonefish, 00000000_xx_8339_656b0d0ff4cb38fda365b257fc70a9fa.jpg — A bonefish in southern Biscayne Bay checks out a Hank Brown jig tipped with shrimp.Jason Arnold

15 - hammer head shark1000.jpg — This scalloped hammerhead circled Arnold, checking him out, over a deep wreck off Fort Lauderdale.

16 - tarpon.jpg — Under the lights of a Key Largo dock, these tarpon hover patiently, waiting to pick off something that swims or drifts past.

17 - sea 0001 african pom0010.jpg — Juvie African pompano retains the elegant dorsal- and anal-fin filamentous rays it will lose in adulthood.JASON ARNOLD

18 - lemon shark, sea 0002 shark 01.jpg — Lemon sharks like this one commonly roam grass flats like these on the bay side of Islamorada.JASON ARNOLD

19 - dolphin mahi mahi004.jpg — What Arnold calls “a wolf pack” of schoolie mahi join forces in the Gulf Stream.JASONARNOLDCOLLECTION.COM

20 - sea0002grouper0005.jpg — Trolling South Florida’s shallow patch reefs in winter was the ticket for this gag grouper that snatched up a Rapala X-Rap.JASON ARNOLD

21 - redfish, 00000000_xx_5302_ceb86d55daee8af197b3e2c261869080.jpg — Redfish feeds in the sands of Florida Bay.

22 - white marlin, jac_5634.jpg — White marlin swims the blue depths of the Atlantic off Venezuela.

23 - sea 0002 kingfish0005.jpg — This kingfish is indifferent to Arnold and his camera as it searches for more live pilchards being tossed out of a nearby boat as chum.JASON ARNOLD

24 - sea trout 012.jpg — Seatrout emerges from hiding in turtle grass in Florida Bay’s Whipray Basin.Jason Arnold / www.JasonArnoldPhoto.com

26 - sea0002false albacore1003.jpg — Little tunny.JASON ARNOLD

27 - snook 136.jpg — Large snook lurks near pilings of a Florida inlet.JASON ARNOLD

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