What is the point of fishing?

I bought some huge rainbow trout from an angler who was lake fishing a while ago. Getting them home in an ever-breaking plastic bag (I was on a bike!) was a nightmare but I did pay only £1 a fish, in 2010.

But they turned out to have a rank, muddy taste. Horrible. Did I miss a trick? Soaking the fillets in milk or similar? I threw most of the fish away I'm ashamed to say

Fresh fish doesn't smell - that's what I've always understood!

Sadly * isthisall* this is typical of many in today's society. They want their fish to come in neat little sealed packets, preferably frozen, sans head, tail, fins, guts and bones and ......smell. Like you (I think) I like to see, eat and smell the real thing. I just open the windows and light a nice candle afterwards.

We're getting way off topic but I live in Leicester, have done for the past 16 years. Yes the market here is wonderful but it is dying on its feet. People seem to want to shop indoors in the warm and dry plus free parking. I ride a bike and want to see the market survive. Ironically, it's the indoor fish market that's doing worst of all. Very smelly people say, and in a very unappealing building. Sad; I'd love to think our Council will sort things out but .....

I love Leicester so much , both my girls went to "Uni " there . The market was fabulous , such variety , and the people sooo friendly .

We lived in Leicester which has a great fish market (well, not for me, I hate fish) - it couldn't be more central and therefore away from sea for the UK, but fish arrived fresh everyday from Skegness and area.

Nowhere in England is more than 70 miles away - so fish can be there in plenty of time for market to open.

Greatnan The freshness of fish depends where you buy it and where you live. The fish sold in my local market is caught the same morning about 25 miles away. I can't answer for the freshness of supermarket fish.

Angling is a blood sport. It is a blight on riverside locations.

There is no evidence that fish feel no pain. Why would they not?

My DH is a sea fisherman. He has only just sold his fourth boat.

You can`t beat the taste of really fresh fish.

Oh Greatnan, only skate. Everything else as fresh as possible. Bright eyed and smelling only of the sea.

I was at a place once where there were some men fishing , so we stood and watched for a while then one bloke caught one and no kidding I felt so sorry for the poor creature wriggling away . Ihad to leave .

I have read somewhere that fish should be left a day or two after catching, but I prefer them very fresh. Of course, frozen fish is likely to be much fresher than unfrozen, which may have taken a week to get from the point of unloading the boat to to the fishmonger's slab.

I quite like fishing but I have no intention of doing it. Like Greatnan it gives me a day to myself while DH has a day's fishing with friends

Reminds me of when fishing for Mackeral just off the Chesil beach, as you say , easy to catch, providing you were with the shoal, but best of all was when , within an hour of catching them we were eating them, grilled on a fire on the pebbles of Chesil, never more than an hour old, god they tasted good.

Once again I have to say that Switzerland is a very civilised country!
Angling had a great use for me - it took my husband out of my hair for many hour, giving me time to spend on the things I liked doing. He was very interested in wild life and did often see kingfishers and other birds.
On the other hand, he was very selfish - I remember sitting with my girls under waterproofs in the rain on Chesil Beach while he spent two hours catching nothing. He once bought one girl a reel and the other one a rod for Christmas - they could only be used together.
The only time I enjoyed fishing was when we had a small boat on Loch Sween and fished for mackerel in the evening. They would take anything - we were feathering - and practically threw themselves onto the boat. We had them soused, with home-made chips. Delicious.

Here (in Switzerland) 'catch and release' is forbidden. All fishermen have to do a course for so many hours before they can get a licence. It includes all safety advice, ecological information, species knowledge, how to avoid hurting fish, etc, etc. Then all fish caught have to be killed quickly and taken away for eating (or selling for eating). I can understand fly fishing by a beautiful natural river, with a lot of skill involved, although I do not personally do it. Sitting by a stocked lake, fishing and releasing the same fish again and again, really does not appeal- and seems cruel to me.

For a start, by using a barbless hook fish are NOT maimed, nor do they suffer pain as they have no feeling in of the mouth.

Secondly, a lot of "ledger" fish, to those not enlightened, that is fishing without a float using a swim feeder to keep the hook on the river bed, so you are NOT stariing at a float all day.

Thirdly, one should contemplate fishing if one is at peace with nature, to see a Kingfisher skim the water at speed, to a Coypu swim by with young, to see a heron / roe deer/ cattle/ feeding /drinking are sights you would SELDOM see if you didn't sit quietly on a river bank

Fourthly, fishing is a time when you can let your mind wander, time to be able to reason things out, time just sit in a calm peaceful enviroment.

Fithly, a lot of us go fishing in the hope we MAY catch a fish, ( and return it to the river), those that fish EXPECTING to catch fish are of a totally different breed to us "hopers".

Just got back from the river Box, one trout in my bag, taken on one of my flies.

I have spent many an hour tying knots in peacock tail fibres to make crane fly legs, trout love them.

A friend of ours ties his own fishing flies - they really were minature works of art. He used a part of peacock feather to make the bent legs for 'crane flies' - I really hate the real things and his fake ones really gave me the creeps! So realistic.

Grannyactivist, that's exactly what I have. But it is quite easy to improvise a kettle style BBQ to use as a smoker. You need a heat source, charcoal, a tin tray directly on top of the charcoal. You put a good handful of damp wood chippings (oak, fruit wood, hickory etc.) on the tray, then the fish, meat etc on a rack above the tray. Close the lid and allow to smoke for about 30 min.

With fish, before you smoke it, you need to brine it. If anyone wants to know more i can point you to a good website.

Artygran, yes, you are right, coarse fish, mainly carp are eaten in Eastern Europe, and fishing there appears to be free to all. Some Eastern Europeans are raiding out fisheries for free food, which has been a big problem in some areas.

Pike is about the only coarse fish normally eaten in the UK, but not that much, cod tastes much better.

We have a fish smoker. It's basically a stainless steel lidded box with a rack inside on which to lay the fish, then wood shavings are placed in the bottom of the tray and a small burner is lit underneath. We love smoked mackerel and there's nothing quite like catching and cooking your own. Delicious.

Re you comment "very rarely eaten", Pompa. The two partners at the firm I worked for before I retired were very keen fishermen - one a coarse angler (no he wasn't coarse, just the fish!), the other a fly fisherman. The coarse angler was always complaining that his favourite fisheries were constantly being raided by "fish rustlers" who took quantities of fish by elicit means - species we consider purely for sport and wouldn't dream of eating (though I have eaten pike and didn't care for it) - for the table. This is apparently a recent problem and costs the fisheries thousands of pounds a year in lost income. So someone is eating them somewhere (whatever floats your boat, as they say)!

How do you hot smoke a fish (or several)? Do you need special equipment?

My mother used to cut up old clothes so that they lay flat-not in pieces and then layer them to make very heavy duvet type of thing. Her grandmother was from the Shetlands and I thnk they also did that long ago in Oz. Does anyone know about that?

As far as the art form goes, for me that is tying my flies, every fish I catch is with a fly I have designed and tied myself. I tie hundreds of different patterns, but only ever use a dozen or so.

Smoking is my job for today, I have about a dozen trout and salmon in my freezer that are going to be hot smoked today. (the salmon were caught in a local river called the river Tesco !!! But whole fish when the are on special offer)