What is the point of fishing?

You're using the wrong bait, Daman.

I thought more positive responses might be forthcoming - but then when you are used to only chucking the few fast loud words across a crowded Lil's ......

Well said arty your last sentence summed it perfectly..... on my last trip to the river I had to cross a farmer's field, and stood in something similar to what Daman is talking....

Sounds like you're chucking out a line and waiting for a take, Daman! They're not rising today!

It takes much computing type skill to be an angler . They are usually frustrated computer nerds, or nerds on their recreation time.

Sorry - too much waxing lyrical!

Unfortunately, so much supermarket fish does taste bland and woolly - I bought arctic char from the supermarket recently - farmed of course; nothing like the fresh, wild variety. Very disappointing and not worth the money. Similarly, a trout, straight off your hook is a different fish to anything you will buy in a shop (unless it is from a muddy still water - then it would go straight back in). The best mackerel I ever tasted we caught off St Ives. It was my son's idea to fish for it but he was so sick while we were out he couldn't look at it afterwards! We still tease him about it now. I like the subtlety and mystique of fly angling - studying what the fish are eating on any given day and trying to fool them into thinking your little fly is the real deal; thinking about how the weather affects their activity; the joy of seeing them rise to take a natural fly, sometimes with enormous aggression, sometimes with just the merest sip that can be missed in an instant. I don't care if I don't catch anything. It's just being there on the water that gives the most pleasure - anything else is a bonus.

I was not entirely serious about my answer!

Posts earlier in this thread took me back to kiving, broke, in Cornwall n the 60s, and borrowing a dinghy, motoring out to sea and catching mackerel and pollack - being hungry and feeling dinner hit the line was a real kick - atavastic, possibly, but it did feel good - clean them on the way back, with a cloud of gulls waiting for the guts, then straight into flour and hot fat...
magnificent! The mackerel anyway - I'm amazed to see pollack in the supermarkets today - bland and woolly I thought it.

Pete

Anglers understand the answer...Non anglers don't...so each to their own!

The point of fishing?

Showing the world that ou are cleverer than a fish...

arty I'm sure that Jack has found them already!

There are wonderful trout streams in Heaven, Phoenix - I'm banking on it or I won't go!

Thanks Pete

phoenix

My (late) youngest son enjoyed fishing from an early age. He was taught the basics of fly fishing aged around 10 by a lovely chap who used to be a client years ago. He sent flowers to Jack's funeral, and among the words on the card was the phrase "Tight Lines"

artygran don't worry!! Just get out there and enjoy......Tight Lines

Very glad to report that coarse fishing is illegal in Switzerland. Catching fish and releasing, again and again- seems really cruel to me. All fishermen here have to follow a course before getting a licence.

Crikey! I struggle to land a pound and a half - I have to lie down for a week!

Did anyone see the programme on an obscure channel the other night where a man went fishing for huge sturgeon [there had been reports of 'monsters' in the rivers and he realised they were sturgeon]. Although they dwell on the bottom they sometimes leap out of the water and have can kill people by knocking them out of their boats.

I started fly fishing last year, and now I am well and truly hooked, if you will pardon the pun. DH thinks fishing is a quite ridiculous waste of time, but it's his fault I got involved in it in the first place so he can't complain at the amount of time - or money (it is very expensive) - I spend doing it. I've had a lot of hobbies, but none as absorbing as this one. I am completely with Pete on this one.

Pete...well said!

All fish smells when you're cooking it. it shouldn't smell bad or over strong, but it does smell...of fish! And I suspect these were brown trout if they tasted muddy, though of course I can see them so am only guessing.
I used to fish pete when I were a lass. .

I used to like fishing from my boat. It's one of the things I miss. Very restful!

Fresh air,countryside, peace and quiet,blending into the bankside surrounded by nature Oh! and the chance of catching a fish to return it to its secret world...........Yes "What is the point of fishing?"