Recreational fishing

The most common form of recreational fishing is angling, which is done with a rig of rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits, as well as other complementary devices such as weights, floats, swivels and method feeders, collectively referred to as terminal tackles.

Other forms of recreational fishing include spearfishing, which is done with a speargun or harpoon usually while diving; and bowfishing, which is done from above the water with archery equipments such as a compound bow or crossbow.

The essay was titled Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle,[4] and was published in the second Boke of Saint Albans, a treatise on hawking, hunting and heraldry.

These were major interests of the nobility, and the publisher, Wynkyn de Worde, was concerned that the book should be kept from those who were not gentlemen, since their immoderation in angling might "utterly destroy it".

Treatyse includes detailed information on fishing waters, the construction of rods and lines, and the use of natural baits and artificial flies.

[1] Archived 2021-09-15 at the Wayback Machine The "Leaky Bucket" illustrates the annual churn of fishing participants, or those people joining/rejoining the activity and those quitting in a given year.

[3] Archived 2021-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Recreational fishing took a great leap forward after the English Civil War, where a newly found interest in the activity left its mark on the many books and treatises that were written on the subject at the time.

The pastoral discourse was enriched with country fishing folklore, songs and poems, recipes and anecdotes, moral meditations, and quotes from classic literature.

The central character, Piscator, champions the art of angling, but with an air of tranquility also relishes the pleasures of friendship, verse and song, and good food and drink.

Early multiplying reels were wide and had a small diameter, and their gears, made of brass, often wore down after extensive use.

A full list of the tackles he sold included artificial flies, and 'the best sort of multiplying brass winches both stop and plain'.

Alfred Ronalds took up the sport of fly fishing, learning the craft on the rivers Trent, Blythe and Dove.

From this hut, and elsewhere on his home rivers, Ronalds conducted experiments and formulated the ideas that eventually were published in The Fly-fisher's Entomology in 1836.

[14] He combined his knowledge of fly fishing with his skill as an engraver and printer, to lavish his work with 20 colour plates.

It was the first comprehensive work related to the entomology associated with fly fishing and most fly-fishing historians credit Ronalds with setting a literature standard in 1836 that is still followed today.

By the mid to late 19th century, expanding leisure opportunities for the middle and lower classes began to have its effect on fly fishing, which steadily grew in mass appeal.

The expansion of the railway network in Britain allowed the less affluent for the first time to take weekend trips to the seaside or to rivers for fishing.

[16] In southern England, dry-fly fishing acquired an elitist reputation as the only acceptable method of fishing the slower, clearer rivers of the south such as the River Test and the other chalk streams concentrated in Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset and Berkshire (see Southern England Chalk Formation for the geological specifics).

[17] In the late 19th century, American anglers, such as Theodore Gordon, in the Catskill Mountains of New York began using fly tackle to fish the region's brook trout-rich streams such as the Beaverkill and Willowemoc Creek.

[17] Albert Bigelow Paine, a New England author, wrote about fly fishing in The Tent Dwellers, a book about a three-week trip he and a friend took to central Nova Scotia in 1908.

Participation in fly fishing peaked in the early 1920s in the eastern states of Maine and Vermont and in the Midwest in the spring creeks of Wisconsin.

In 1898, Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, a marine biologist and early conservationist, pioneered this sport and went on to publish many articles and books on the subject noted for their combination of accurate scientific detail with exciting narratives.

In North America, popular freshwater fish include trout, bass, pike, catfish, walleye and muskellunge.

The smallest fish are called panfish, because they can fit whole in a normal cooking pan, examples being perch and sunfish (Centrarchidae).

In the past, sport fishers, even if they did not eat their catch, almost always killed the fish and bring them to shore to be weighed or for preservation as trophies.

Recreational fishing techniques include hand gathering, bowfishing, spearfishing, netting, angling, and trapping.

Some examples are hooks, lines, sinkers, floats, rods, reels, baits, lures, arrows, spears, nets, gaffs, traps, waders and tackle boxes.

[24] Regulations notwithstanding, voluntary catch and release fishing as a means of protecting and sustaining game species has become an increasingly common practice among conservation-minded recreational anglers.

In tag and release competitions, a flat score is awarded per fish species caught, divided by the line strength.

[citation needed] "Pay to fish" enterprises provide anglers with controlled access to stocked lakes, ponds, or canals.