The majority of fish who are hooked, hauled out of the water by the pressure of a hook in the soft tissue of their mouth, esophogus, or stomach, picked up and held tightly in human hand while the hook is extracted and perhaps having its slime layer, scales, skin, and even internal organ damaged, are able to struggle and swim away vigorously when released, only to die hours or days later from the trauma and infection that sets into their wounds.

Releasing caught fish is a false act of charity. The fish are maimed and many die as a result of the "sport" of catching them with a sharp metal hook and lifting them out of the water and squeezing them.

To throw them back in only to fish again is 1) throwing away food and litter the pond, lake, or brook with rotting dead fish that will be there long after you left the scene, and 2) actually pretty cruel, if you take a thought for such things. Better to catch you fish and club it to death outright, and go home with a cooler full of fish to fry or freeze. And quit when you're done.

Catching fish and throwing them back for "sport" is like eating a heavy meal, going out back to vomit and purge, and coming back to eat up full again. It's piggish. The purpose of fishing is to catch fish. Catch your alotted amount and go home to a fish fry, sportsman.

That is just silliness, but you tell it well.

Come to think about it, it is no more silly than the whole turn of the thread into a 'morality of fishin' subject.

I do see a certain silliness in purchasing a new gun as part of some sort of a catch and release program. I don't see how it would work.

I love strawberry rhubabrb pie. It tastes mighty fine on a picnic. Even after a good fish-fry.

Who likes pie?

I haven't fished in years, and I don't like to eat fish too much, but if I was to fish again, I would have to make sure somebody ate what I caught, and have some of it myself. I would hate to think that my actions resulted in prolonged suffering for an animal. To eat what one has killed, in a mindful fashion, is the least one can do.

I do! Good old rhubarb pie with or without strawberries is my favorite... Fishing is not my cup of tea.

Agreed, Jokul.

That is a bunch of nonsense to say the majority of catch and release fish end up dead. If that was truly the case, the Fish and Game departments of nearly every state wouldn't allow it as they are EXCEPTIONALLY protective of the game in the states.

Do some fish eventually die from being caught by a hook? Sure. But by no means is it the majority.

That was complete nonsense, Helice, and I challenge you to provide some statistics to back up your argument.

i wasn't quoting statistics, I was quoting from my own personal knowledge. I owned a pet shop for three years with an extensive fresh, salt, koi, and brackish water fish center, and I hosted a weekly radio call-in talk show. I also worked as a vet assistant for a couple of years.

All fish have a protective slime layer over their entire bodies. To handle a fish with your bare hands is to disrupt that protective layer, leaving the fish vulnerable to disease and opportunistic parasitic infestation. Even if a fish was netted gently from the water, the act of touching it woth your hands has created the chance for it to die from your touch. But of course, fish go through so much more when they are hooked, with or without a barbed hook. They swallow the sharp metal hook which pierces the tissue of their mouth, throat, or stomach, depending on how deeply the hook was swallowed before it was "set". The hook and line provide traction to reel in the fish, which begins to thrash and fight for its life, and that metal hook is subjected to high tension and sudden jerks that tear the fish's tissues internally where the hook is set.

The fish, thrashing and jumping, is pulled from the water by the its own weight reasting on a sharp thin piece of metal somewhere inside its digestive tract, and if you think you could survive such an experiece without lifesaving surgery afterwards, you're just silly.

When you bring that fish in the boat, grab it, hold it up admiringly to show everyone what a great person you are for catching it, you are stripping the slime from its body that it needs to live, you are usually removing some scales, too, exposing lower level of dermis to infection, holding it firmly while you grab that hook and do your best to unjam it from the fish's mouth, throat, or stomach and in the process perhaps damaging or even mashing its internal organs which were not designed for such handling, and you are depriving it of oxygen while it's out of water.

Putting such a damaged fish back in the water and watching it wriggle away from the boat may give you the false feeling that catch-and-release sport fishing is a fun and harmless sport for the prey as well as the sportsman, but most of these fish are damaged to some extent and in a deep state of shock. They end up sick with bacterial and fungal infections, overrun with parasites, and make easy prey for larger fish looking for a meal because of their compromised state.

Really, it would be much better to just eat what you catch. Catch a couple of fish, put them in the cooler, and go home. Don't pat yourself on the back for catching and releasing 8 or 10 that will probably die from the rough handling.

I'm not a PETA person, I like to eat meat, and I even like to go fishing. I just recognize catch-and-release as a false promise of humane treatment. It isn't.

Moderator,

You altered the subject on one of my posts to read "The Cruelty of Fishing", which does not reflect my position on fishing. I wsa simply responding to statements about a particular method of sport fishing. I believe fishing is a fine activity if the fish caught are used for some good purpose, like food.

When you retitle things, please make sure you don't subvert the message of the person posting.

Helice, You owned a pet shop which means you got fish from breeders--or wherever--who had them netted out of their tanks and into yours. You then netted the little guys into a plastic baggy so the new owner could take them home. I'm sure you instructed the new owner to rest the baggy in the new tank until the water temperature had been equalized and the new fish had adapted to the new temperature--after having been driven home, perhaps left for a time while mom makes a quick stop at the grocery store. But, geeze!

Given that trauma, will little Joey's fish survive? Yes, as a pet shop owner, you would hope so.

If an equally 'wild' fish is taken with a barbless hook, if it's held in the water either against the side of a boai or the side of a leg while the barbless hook is removed, how is it going to be killed. It's suffered no more--and probably less--trauma than your pet shop fish.

Naturally, if someone catches a fish on a barbless hook and that fish has swallowed the hook, it becomes a part of the 'catch.' To do otherwise would be inhumane, wouldn't it?