Monkey

In angling, it is sometimes expected or required that fish all be returned to the water (catch and release). Kayaks are extremely stealthy and can allow anglers to reach areas unfishable from land or by conventional boat. Kayak fisherman fish from sea kayaks in an attempt to level the playing field with fish and to further challenge their abilities. One method of growing popularity is kayak fishing.

This practice is known as angling. The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, line and hooks attached to any of a wide range of lures or baits. Typically, these prohibit the use of nets and the catching of fish with hooks not in the mouth. Recreational fishing has conventions, rules, licensing restrictions and laws that limit the way in which fish may be caught.

Recreational fishing and the closely related (nearly synonymous) sport fishing describe fishing for pleasure or competition. Main article: Angling. Protective equipment must be worn to isolate the operator and prevent electrocution. They are typically equipped with a "dead-man switch" and a tilt switch to disable the device if the unit is tipped or the operator incapacitated.

Rigs can be battery powered back-packs or powered by a generator if they are mounted in a boat. Smaller fish also require shorter pulses, closer together, while large fish should have longer pulses at lower power and longer gaps between pulses. Also the smaller the fish, and consequently the less surface area in contact with the water, the higher the current required to produce galvanotaxis. Dissolved minerals in the water can decrease resistance causing less of the current to pass through the fish, whereas fish recently entering fresh water from the ocean have high salinity and are more prone to electric shock.

Techniques for setting pulse length and patterns, current and voltage require great skill to fish effectively without killing or injuring fish if they are to be left unharmed. A low voltage or short pulse with long gaps will cause the fish to swim away from the device, and high voltage or long pulses with short rests can cause galvanonarcosis, or unconsciousness. A gated pulse of direct current is used to cause muscular contractions in a fish, called galvanotaxis, causing them to turn towards the source of the electrical current and swim towards it when correct pulse speeds and durations are used, along with correct current. A relatively new fishing technique is electrofishing, typically used for stream classification surveys and catching brood stock for hatcheries, or making estimates of populations in a body of water.

. Blast fishing is also illegal in many waterways around the world. Explosions are particularly harmful to coral reefs^[21]. The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or destroy the physical environment.

Fish are killed by the shock from the blast and are then skimmed from the surface or collected from the bottom. Dynamite or blast fishing, is done easily and cheaply with dynamite or homemade bombs made from locally available materials. The high concentrations of cyanide on reefs so harvested damages the coral polyps and has also resulted in cases of cyanide poisoning among local fishermen and their families. Those that survive often die from shock or from massive digestive damage.

Many fish caught in this fashion die either immediately or in shipping. This illegal fishing occurs mainly in or near the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Caribbean to supply the 2 million marine aquarium owners in the world. Cyanides are used to capture live fish near coral reefs for the aquarium and seafood market. Some of these poisons paralyse the fish, others are thought to work by removing oxygen from the water^[20].

Many hunter gatherer cultures use poisonous plants to stun fish so that they become easy to collect by hand. Labrador Retrievers have been used by fishermen to assist in bringing nets to shore; the dog would grab the floating corks on the ends of the nets and pull them to shore. Dating from the 1500s in Portugal, Portuguese Water Dogs were used by fishermen to send messages between boats, to retrieve fish and articles from the water, and to guard the fishing boats. However, these accounts are probably apocryphal, and based on earlier accounts no longer extant.

The earliest surviving records of the practice are Peter Martyr d'Anghera's 1511 accounts of the second voyage of Columbus to the New World (1494)^[19]. The practice of tethering a remora, a sucking fish, to a fishing line and using the remora to capture sea turtles probably originated in the Indian Ocean. The fish are instead collected by the fisherman^[18]. Fishermen use the natural fish-hunting instincts of the cormorants to catch fish, but a metal ring placed round the bird's neck prevents large, valuable fish being swallowed.

In China and Japan, the practice of cormorant fishing is thought to date back some 1300 years. Similar traps are used in many areas to capture bait fish. The pots are baited and lowered into the water and checked daily. Pot traps such as the lobster trap may be constructed in various shapes, each is a mesh box designed with a convoluted entrance that makes entry much easier than exit.

Pot traps are typically used to catch crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and crayfish. Twice a day the adults Wagenya people pull out these baskets to check whether there are any fish caught; in which case somebody will dive into the river to fetch it. It is a very selective fishing, as these baskets are quite big and only large size fish are trapped. To these tripods are anchored large baskets, which are lowered in the rapids to "sieve" the waters for fish.

These tripods are anchored on the holes naturally carved in the rock by the water current. The Wagenya people, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, build a huge system of wooden tripods across the river. Basket weirs are about 2 m long and comprise two wicker cones, one inside the other — easy to get into and hard to get out^[17]. They are shown in medieval illustrations and surviving examples have been found.

Basket weir fish traps were widely used in ancient times. The Magna Carta includes a clause requiring that they be removed:. Such fish traps were evidently controversial in medieval England. 'V' shaped structures in rivers could be as long as 60 m and worked by directing fish towards fish traps or nets.

In medieval Europe, large fishing weir structures were constructed from wood posts and wattle fences. This involves the construction of a temporary dam resulting in a drop in the water levels downstream -- allowing fish to be easily collected^[15]. A technique called dam fishing is used by the Baka pygmies. Somewhat similar stone wall traps were constructed by native American Pit River people in north-eastern California^[14].

Traps at different levels in the marsh came into operation as the water level rose and fell. The eels were caught by a variety of traps including stone walls constructed across canals with a net placed across an opening in the wall. The purpose of these canals was the encouragement and catching of eels, a fish of short coastal rivers (as opposed to rivers of the Murray-Darling system). In southern Victoria, indigenous people created an elaborate systems of canals, some more than 2 km long.

The Brewarinna fish traps caught huge numbers of migratory native fish as the Barwon River rose in flood and then fell. The largest and best known were the Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River at Brewarrina in New South Wales, which fortunately are at least partly preserved^[13]. Unfortunately, most have been completely or partially destroyed. Here, where water levels fluctuate seasonally, indigenous people constructed ingenious, stone, fish traps^[12].

Indigenous Australians were, prior to European colonisation, most populous in Australia's better-watered areas such as the Murray-Darling river system of the south-east. There are essentially two types of trap, a permanent or semi-permanent structure placed in a river or tidal area and pot-traps that are baited to attract prey and periodically lifted. Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. It is practised by hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit and by sportsmen in many cold climates.

Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and hooks through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. Main article: Ice fishing.. Kites can also be used for trolling a lure through the water. Similarly, for boat owners, kites provide a way to fish in areas where it is not safe to navigate such as shallows or coral reefs where fish may be plentiful.

Kites can provide the boatless fishermen access to waters that would otherwise be available only to boats. The fishing line may be made from coconut fibre and the lure made from spiders webs^[11]. Those of Tobi Island are a large leaf stiffened by the ribs of the fronds of the coconut palm. Suitable kites may be of very simple construction.

It is not clear whether kite fishing was communicated or of independent invention. Kite fishing was invented in China and was (and is) also known to the people of New Guinea and other Pacific Islands. Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line. This technique allows anglers to cover a large body of water in a short time.

Trolling is also a freshwater angling technique most often used to catch Trout. Trolling from a moving boat is a technique of big-game fishing and is used when fishing from boats to catch large open-water species such as tuna and marlin. Trolling is a technique in which a fishing lure on a line is drawn through the water. Fishing with a hook and line is called angling.

The tightening of the line would fix it cross-wise in the quarry's stomach or gullet and so the capture would be assured. A gorge is buried in the bait such that it would be swallowed end first. A fishing hook will pierce the mouthparts of a fish and may be barbed to make escape less likely. Fish are caught with a fishing line by encouraging a fish to bite upon a fish hook or a gorge.

Scallop dredging is very destructive to the seabed, and nowadays is often replaced by mariculture or by scuba diving to collect the scallops. They tend to have the form of a scoop made of chain mesh and they are towed by a fishing boat. There are types of dredges used for collecting scallops or oysters from the seabed. They may continue to be a menace to wildlife for many years.

Ghost nets are nets that have been lost at sea. Thus trapped, the fish can neither advance trough the net nor retreat. A gillnet catches fish which try to pass through it by snagging on the gill covers. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.

Danish seine is a method which has some similarities with trawling. A simple and commonly used fishing technique is beach seining, where the seine net is operated from the shore. In purse seine fishing the net hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. A seine is a large fishing net that may be arranged in a number of different ways.

The nets are dipped into the water and raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets of 20 m or more across. The Chinese fishing nets (Cheena vala) found at Kochi in India are an unusual method of fishing. When a fish is caught, each hauls up his end of the net until the two coracles are brought to touch and the fish is then secured.

Coracle-fishing is performed by two men, each seated in his coracle and with one hand holding the net while, with the other, he plies his paddle. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in^[10]. The net is thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. Sizes vary up to about 4 m diameter.

A casting net is circular with a weighted periphery. In England, hand netting is the only legal way of catching eels and has been practised for thousands of years on the River Parrett and River Severn. Such a net used by an angler to aid in landing a captured fish is known as a landing net. A small hand net held open by a hoop and possibly on the end of a long stiff handle has been known since antiquity and may be used for sweeping up fish near the water surface.

Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still used in certain areas. All fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. Hunter gatherers may use the bow to kill fish in shallow water. With practice, divers are able to hold their breath for up to four minutes; of course, a diver with underwater breathing equipment can dive for much longer periods.

Traditional spear fishing is restricted to shallow waters, but the development of the speargun has made the method much more efficient. A small trident type spear with a long handle is used in the American South and Midwest for "gigging" bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging carp and other trash fish in the shallows. Spear fishing is an ancient method of fishing and may be conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialised variant such as an eel spear^[8][9] or the trident. Catching Fish by hand is currently illegal in the state of Kansas.

Hand-line fishing is a technique requiring a fishing line with a weight and one or more lure-like hooks. Pearl diving is the practice of hunting for oysters by free-diving to depths of up to 30 m. Divers can catch lobsters by hand. Trout binning is a method of fishing, possibly fictional, performed with a sledgehammer^[7].

In the British Isles, the practice of catching trout by hand is known as trout tickling; it is an art mentioned several times in the plays of Shakespeare. In the USA catching catfish in this way is known as noodling. It is possible to fish with minimal equipment by using only the hands. In traditional Chinese history, history begins with three semi-mystical and legendary individuals who taught the Chinese the arts of civilization around 2800-2600 BC: of these Fu Hsi was reputed to be the inventor of writing, hunting, trapping, and fishing.

From ancient representations and literature it is clear that fishing boats were typically small, lacking a mast or sail, and were only used close to the shore. Oppian’s description of fishing with a "motionless" net is also very interesting:. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents, and various traps "which work while their masters sleep". This is the earliest such work to have survived intact to the modern day.

Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180. The Greek historian Polybius ((ca 203 BC-120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head^[6]. An early example from the Bible in Job 41:7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?^[5]. There are numerous references to fishing in ancient literature; in most cases, however, the descriptions of nets and fishing-gear do not go into detail, and the equipment is described in general terms.

The Greco-Roman sea god Neptune is depicted as wielding a fishing trident. He would fight against the murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with the image of a fish on the front. In a parody of fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with a trident and a casting-net. Various species such as conger, lobster, sea urchin, octopus and cuttlefish are illustrated^[4].

Pictorial evidence of Roman fishing comes from mosaics which show fishing from boats with rod and line as well as nets. This object is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston^[3]. It is clearly not a net. This has been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish, or as a fish-trap.

In the water below, a rounded object of the same material with an opening on the top. There is a wine cup, dating from 510–500 BC, that shows a boy crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and a basket in his left. Fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing. Some representations hint at fishing being pursued as a pastime.

Nile perch, catfish and eels were among the most important fish. As is fairly common today, the fish were clubbed to death after capture. By the 12th dynasty, metal hooks with barbs were being used. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres) were all being used.

Simple reed boats served for fishing. The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings, and papyrus documents. The ancient river Nile was full of fish; fresh and dried fish were a staple food for much of the population^[2]. There is a controversial proposal called the aquatic ape hypothesis which proposes that the ancestors of modern humans went through one or more periods of time living in a semi-aquatic setting and that they gathered most of their food from shallow coastal or other waters before their descendants returned to a more land-based existence.

Fishing may even pre-date the development of modern humans. With the new technologies of farming and pottery came the basic forms of most fishing methods known today. The Neolithic culture and technology spread worldwide between about 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. However, where there are a few early examples of permanent settlements (though not necessarily permanently occupied) such as those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with fishing as a major source of food.

During this time, most people lived a hunter-gather lifestyle and were, of necessity, constantly on the move. We know from archaeological features such as shell middens^[1], discarded fish bones and cave paintings that sea foods were important and consumed in significant quantities. Fishing is a very ancient practice that dates back at least to the Mesolithic period which began about 10,000 years ago. .

An organized fishing effort, typically centred around a particular commercially valuable species, is known as a fishery. Fishing is an ancient and worldwide practice with many techniques and traditions, and it has been transformed by modern technological developments. The term fishing is usually not applied to the hunting of aquatic mammals such as whales. By extension, the term fishing is also applied to hunting for other aquatic animals such as various types of shellfish as well as squid, octopus, turtles, frogs and some edible marine invertebrates.

Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish. Cod: stockfish (air dried), lutefisk (soaked in lye). Salmon: smoked salmon, cured salmon, and gravlax (fermented). Herring: kipper (salted and smoked), surströmming (fermented), rollmops (pickled), soused (salted).

Haddock: Arbroath Smokie (lightly smoked).