Who thinks fishing is a sport?
Is fishing ethical or not? Is fishing a family event?

I think that fishing is considered a sport and can be an excellent family outing and if you eat what you cacth its ok.

Sport: :hahaerr: A passtime maybe, but not a sport unless you consider the reeling to be the only thing it consists of.

Ethical: not a chance. How'd you like having a steel hook through your lip pull you underwater for five minutes? (My dad actually got hooked once by a drunk buddy, so I can assure you it's no fun.)

Family event: That depends if you mean fishing as getting drunk of your a$$ on a boat, casting from the shore, fly-fishing, or whatever. Certain types (like drunk) don't lend themselves to family outings, but most types of torturing aquatics can be fun for the whole family. ;)

Fishing is perfectly ethical most of the time, as one generally (or I generally) tend to catch nothing at all.

The only time fishing is unethical (IMO) is when the huge boats with huge nets kill whatever else (dolphins, whales) that get stuck in the nets. Fishing for a living, and for fun is great.

The only time fishing is unethical (IMO) is when the huge boats with huge nets kill whatever else (dolphins, whales) that get stuck in the nets. Fishing for a living, and for fun is great. I second that :)

It's unethical when there's collateral damage (like the nets that kill dolphins) or when the fish fished isn't eaten but thrown away. Or when people fish and let fish go after taking a photo and think it's so ethical. But what about the hook piercing through the fish's "cheeks"? Not good. I don't like the idea of leaving fish to die from suffocating and sun heat.

I harpoon fish, that is a true test of skill. There is nothing wrong with fishing as long as there is no waste. Anyone see that SouthPark episode where the kids go hunting and they grenade the fishes? That was funny.

Fishing is not a sport. It's ok if you kill the fish and eat it. Preferably, kill it when you get it up from the water.

The only time fishing is unethical (IMO) is when the huge boats with huge nets kill whatever else (dolphins, whales) that get stuck in the nets. Fishing for a living, and for fun is great. What do you think the huge boats with huge nets are doing this for? They're earning their living :lol:

Fishing is a great sport (in its true definition of a recreational activity), but I guess not one for the PETA members this board seems to be awash in. Lots of killing and such.

When I was a kid and we'd visit my dad's family in North Dakota, we'd fish all the time; it was a great family experience. We'd use many different lures, and live bait such as minnows, leeches, frogs etc. (Oh no! More killing!). I remember even catching frogs along the lakeshore to use as bait (nothing's better than using something from the area in which you're fishing).

We'd catch 'em, put 'em live back on strings/metal-mesh baskets in the lake until it was time to leave, then let them suffocate in the trunk of the car on the way back to the farm. Good eatin'! Mmmmm...mmmm! Walleye, Northern Pike, Perch, Smallmouth Bass.... yummy.

Oh and for those of you against catch-and-release: Anything smaller than a certain size for most game fish had to be released as long as it was likely to survive; which is most of what you catch if you're skillfull. Most of the time you catch them by the boney lips and there's no blood even, but if you let them swallow the hook before setting it, you can seriously injure the fish, and it's much more difficult to remove the hook.

Well I'll agree pretty much with what BTA said. Except for the frogs, they're a protected species around here so using them as bait would be illegal. ;)

/me sticks nose inside

One dares to strip hunting of its pseudoromantic flair and –- nefarious PETA must of course get a honorable mention. Isnt life ever unpredictable. :D

Nice touch, BTA. You have forgotten nothing about baiting. Some more reminiscing on the frog part and I am all yours. :shake:

In my opinion, fishing is great. Its relaxing and entertaining. I would only find fishing unethical if somebody took like 100 fish when the limit was 3 :(

What do you think the huge boats with huge nets are doing this for? They're earning their living Yes, earning their living at the expense of everyone else...

I think fishing is ok when you are just using a rod and a fly to catch fish. I disagree with the use of huge nets to catch fish because we have fish farms to raise and sell fish to the grocery stores. :confused:

Tehehe Dendri :) I must admit to a bit of baiting up there (after all this is a fishin' thread :lol: ), but in all honesty, I was not taking any shots at people who do not like killing of any kind; it's certainly an admirable position to have. Just not one I happen to share.

Fishing for compliments is unethical because it is misleading.

If nobody fished, how would we have fish to eat?

I'm with Lao Tzu on this one

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime People catching fish to eat is fine the problem comes when you overfish and thereby don't have sustainable stocks. Factory fishing is a major problem not only does it devestate fish stocks but it is indiscriminate in the fish it catches, kills and throws away. To see how bad the problem is in Europe you only have to look at the fishing quotas here (http://europa.eu.int/comm/fisheries/policy_en.htm) and realise after this was agreed fishermen in the UK, France and Spain particularly protested against them.

Yes, earning their living at the expense of everyone else... Give me a break. They're earning their living providing food for others. Most of the food industry is give and take. Farmers use fertilizers, herbacides and insecticides to increase production. Fishermen use huge nets and catch a few other sea creatures. If you don't like that -- stop eating sea food.

I am really only against whaling (close to fishing).

To get back on the specific type of fishing addressed in this topic:

Not a sport. I don't care if it is on ESPN2.

Not unethical (although those against hunting and for fishing are a bit loonie to me).

As far as being a sport, I guess you have to define sport. To me, for it to be a sport, all participants must be there willingly. So, even if no athleticism is required, as for an event like poker, I'm OK with calling it a sport, because presumably everyone who is there wants to be there. As for something like fisihing (and ditto hunting) I can't imagine that the contribution the fish makes is all too willing.

Now I don't have a problem with the ethics of fishing. We've been catching and eating fish for countless millenia. That we have refined and improved our methods is immaterial to the question as a whole. I like sea food, and I don't have a problem with people catching and eating fish. Heck, there are many areas in the U.S. where they have hatcheries where they raise fish, and they later put them in lakes, rivers, etc., with the intent that they will be caught.

we own land in the provinces so when I was younger we used to go out and have family outings there. maybe it's because i haven't been deep-sea fishing or whatever but I found fishing to be booring :rolleyes: :p

Deep sea fishing is a ton more fun than fishing in lakes, ponds, or rivers... tougher fish, tougher fight.

I'm sorry, but sitting around for hours waiting for a fish to take your bait is a good description of boredom to me. I'm not against fishing, but it's not something that I find the least bit fun or interesting. But each to their own, I guess.

Damn straight, HB. If I wanted to stand up to my nethers in freezing cold water for hours on end with no chance of reprieve, I'd go to the beach at Weston-Super-Mare.

But seriously, there are much better ways of enjoying the countryside. Go for a walk, go camping, wrestle bears... don't just stand there staring into muddy water, for the love of God! Nowt so queer as folk, as they say.

If you're sitting around for hours waiting for a fish to take your bait, you're doing something wrong. And that's really where part of the fun lies: Figuring out what is the right thing to use and where to use it to catch some fish. It can actually be pretty interesting.

For example, we found over time that the Northern Pike in North Dakota loved a particular type of lure of a particular color. If you used the same shape lure of a different color, you got nothing (or perhaps something you didn't want :) ). If you used a lure of the same color but different shape you got nothing.

The Northern Pike loved the frogs too, but the Walleye loved the leeches. I remember this one time we went fishing for Walleye at this particular place and there were people up and down the shore not catching too much of anything. I happened to find the exact right spot, and if I dropped my leech in that particular spot, I'd get a fish within a minute or two; if not, it meant I missed the spot, so I'd reel it up and cast it back out to try to get the right spot again. I caught my limit right quick that day... real fun :)

So, in reality, fishing is not such a simple sport as some might believe; and if you think so, you probably won't be catching much.

Fishing is fun. My son recently got a Cub Scout belt loop for fishing. For the record we do catch and release, but that is only because we would have no idea what to do with the fish after we caught it and he hates seafood. Maybe they teach that in Boy Scouts.

If you grow up fishing small, swift streams for brook trout in Northern New England like I did, it's hardly a boring experience. Sometimes it's a monumental challenge just to work your way up stream through brush and rocks just to get to the next "hole" where there might be fish. Make too much noise, cast a shadow or drop your bait clumsily and you spook the fish and they won't go for anything. I'll never forget the day that I walked into a yearling black bear who was heading downstream as I was heading upstream (needless to say, fishing was cancelled for the day...I wonder if my gear is still there...)

Many a fond memory began with gathering nightcrawlers in the dark to hit the fishing spots just as the sun was rising. It truly takes skill, finesse and knowlege. As BTA has already said, an entire days fishing can be wasted just because you didn't know what color or shape lure to use.

I never did enjoy much "boat fishing" where you sit around in a bassboat all day and hope your beer cooler doesn't get empty before the sun goes down...but people who do that aren't there to fish anyway.

When you factor into other skills that are related like rod making and fly tying...there's no way that you can't consider fishing a sport.

There's nothing wrong with "sports" fishing, as long as it's done in a resposible way. The same goes for industrial fishing, unfortunately the fishing industry is often short sighted and over fish. Thus decemating the fish poulations and shooting themselves, as well as everyone eating fish, in the foot.

On a side note, I'd be careful in eating fish from lakes or rivers close to industrial areas. Due to biomagnification and -accumulation of toxins fish are veritable toxic waste.

There's nothing wrong with Blinkie.

No, I can definitely say that fishing is not a sport. Just because it requires skill, doesn't make it a sport. Cabinet-making requires skill but that's not considered to be a sport in any country I know of.

<shrug> You simply have a narrow view that "sport" means an athletic game...

OK - so movie directing is now a sport? And stamp collecting? And colouring competitions? And snakes and ladders? And Counter-Strike? You've got to draw the line somewhere, otherwise everything becomes a sport.

Dictionary.com defines "sport" as...


1.
a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules and often engaged in competively.
b. A particular form of this activity.

2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

3. An active pastime; recreation. It seems like fishing would certainly fall into the third definition.

HB, In the US we have fishing tounaments, usually for bass, where fishermen compete with other fishermen to catch the most number of fish and the largest fish. Seems to me that this kind of fishing would even fall into the first definition.

Now fishing would never be considered a "spectator sport", which may lead to some of the discrepancy in how various members here view it...although some of the larger tournaments will draw crowds to watch.

I would certainly call fishing tournaments and such for sports and if you take it seriously enough to compete then it's most cerainly sport, but I think most people fish just as a passtime are not exactly competing in it, so I would not call that kind of fishing a sport.

And some fishing is certainly althetic. Try reeling in a 900 pound tuna. Usually takes 4 or 5 people taking 5 minute shifts for a few hours to reel one of those puppies in. And even a large sea bass is physically exerting. Fighting one of those for 10 minutes strains your body.

I prefer George Carlin's definition of a sport myself: If it doesn't have a ball it's not a sport.

Along those lines....

If you can drink beer while participating it's not a sport -- it's recreation.

If it involves killing another creature it's not a sport -- it's survival.

T2Bruno - I like your definition better than the dictionary.com one. The dictionary one would include my jokey examples like Counter-Strike or even driving a taxi (you compete against other tax-drivers to get the most fares). Just because you compete against someone, and there are rules doesn't make something a sport, in my opinion.

Well, you can't drink beer and drive a cab legally, so... it's a sport!

I just posted the relevant portions to this post.

If some external force is required to participate, it is not a sport. Watching cars go around and around is not a sport -- NASCAR and Formula 1 are events, not sports (driving a cab is called a JOB).

I love to watch horses race, but it's not a sport. If the creature doing the primary athletic function of the event is not able to understand the benefits of winning, it is not a sport -- horse racing and dog racing are gambling venues, not sports.