Sport fishing, Sports activity consisting of catching fish for recreational and non-profit purposes, as opposed to commercial fishing . In sport fishing , fishing rods , reels , line or fishing line , and hooks with natural or artificial baits are used to get the fish . It is one of the most popular forms of entertainment around the world. It allows people to enjoy the outdoors and accept the challenge of their pursuit, fight elusive fish, and perhaps get food.
Summary
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- 1 Beginnings
- 2 Izaak Walton
- 3 Modern Fishing
- 4 Fishing categories
- 5 Species that are fished the most
- 6 Fishing with natural bait
- 7 Fishing with artificial bait
- 8 Fly fishing
- 9 Trawling
- 10 Sources
the beginning
Man has fished since the Stone Age, when pencil-sharpened bones were used as reeds, and bits of creepers were used as fishing lines. Fishing, as a sport and leisure activity, is more recent, although it has also been carried out in the past. The oldest known painting of an angler is Egyptian and is around 4,000 years old.
Plato and Aristotle mention angling, and Plutarch gives advice on fishing lines. Roman rhetorician Claudius Aelian (170-235 AD) wrote about Macedonian trout fishermen , using artificial flies or feathered bait hooks .
In the western world, during the first centuries before Christ, fishing was apparently reserved for the wealthy classes, since only its members had time to practice it. Some documents from the Roman Empire refer to wealthy patricians who built ponds to fish, provide themselves with easy prey for the table, or simply entertain themselves.
Izaak Walton
In 1653 the fundamental book of Izaak Walton appears The complete rod fisherman , or The diversion of a contemplative man , which contributed to the knowledge of fishing methods and disclosed, with extensive observations, the feeding habits of fish, their life cycles and the problems that fishermen had to overcome in order to fool their prey. Walton also postulated that the true fisherman is the one who practices this activity for the love of fishing, and that catching a fish in this way, in sporting terms, is far superior to any other method of fishing. With Walton, fishing evolved into art; over the centuries, it will also become a science.
Modern Fishing
Since then fishermen not only strive to improve their gear, tactics and knowledge of their prey, but have also realized that they must protect their sport if they want it to survive. In the name of the preservation of sport, the reproduction of fishing in food supplies, measures against the unstoppable pollution of the air and water, the restriction of fishing in certain areas, the limits to daily catches and protective legislation have been appearing. In some countries, dams have been knocked down because they have become insurmountable obstacles to the migration of species such as salmon .
Fishing categories
Modern sport fishing can be divided into three categories:
- Freshwater Fishing: Freshwater fishing is practiced in lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams. Freshwater equipment is, with some exceptions, smaller than saltwater equipment. It is fished with lighter rods, reels and lines and with smaller baits. To fish in lakes, ponds, and large rivers, fishermen wade, stay on shore, or use a boat to approach the prey. To fish in smaller rivers and streams, you wear waterproof boots and clothing, and you walk through the water to the area where you suspect fishing.
- Sea or salt waterfishing : Salt water fishing is done in oceans, estuaries and rivers that are influenced by the tides. When fishing in salt water, most anglers use a boat that takes them to the high seas fishing grounds. Others are stationed on coastal cliffs or on beaches and estuaries.
- Flyfishing : Fly fishing is exercisable in both scenarios.
Species that are fished the most
The species that are fished the most in fresh water are trout , salmon , barbel , perch , pike and carp . Saltwater species are the most sought – after bass , the conger eel , the eel , the hake and tuna. Saltwater and freshwater fishermen often use the same basic techniques, although the size of the equipment differs.
Fishing with natural bait
There are two basic methods:
- Fishing with Buoy:The buoys are made of floating materials, such as balsa wood or plastic, and are attached to the line when the rig is mounted. Next, and at a variable distance depending on the depth of the water to be fished, weights are added (traditionally made of lead; now they are replaced by their toxicity) so that line and bait descend, and also to straighten the buoy and sink it a little in the water . The hook is tied to the main line with a slightly finer section of line. The buoy is the detector of the fish’s bite: at the minimum contact with the fish’s mouth, it moves or sinks a little. The fisherman must then wait for him to take the bait entirely, be patient, and then give a tug with the rod so that the hook is stuck in the cartilaginous mouth of the animal. The buoys are of different sizes, shapes and colors,
- Bottom fishing:a weight, also preferably non-toxic, is attached to the line. When the rod is cast, both the bait and the weight sink to the bottom, where they will remain motionless. The end of the rod, when bending, usually detects the bite of the fish. Many fishermen hook a small bell to the final section of the rod, which warns when it shakes.
Both methods have many variants and it is the fisherman, based on his experience and knowledge, his sense of water, who decides which one to use on a given day.
The natural bait rodders use a wide variety of products: worms , worms , seeds , bread , corn , feed that mix different substances, etc. To fish for carp, special baits are used in the form of a ball, the size of a marble, with high protein content.
Fishing with artificial bait
To fish with artificial baits , the polemen cast their lures from the shore, or from a boat, towards the areas where they are believed to find predatory fish (pike, trout, perch). Once the bait lands in the water or on the bottom, the angler picks up the line by turning the reel handle, at different speeds, regularly or not. If a fish bites your sleep, it will hook itself many times on the hook. Then comes the most awaited moment: the fight. Once the piece is captured, there is always the possibility of returning the live fish to the water.
Today artificial baits simulate almost all fish food: small injured fish, crabs, worms, frogs, etc. Made of balsa wood, plastic, metal or rubber, these baits can include one or more hooks. Based on their weight and design, they can be used for bottom, mid-depth, or surface fishing.
Fishermen choose their rods based on the species of fish they want to get. Light rods are used, in principle, for small fish; but they are also preferred by many fishermen who are looking for more sport fishing, where the fish has more possibilities and the contact with the piece is sharper; In addition, they are more manageable, precise and elegant rods. The very resistant rods hold very large fish. Most anglers consider it unsporting to use large rods for small fish, as the prey cannot then demonstrate their fighting skills.
Fly fishing
Fly fishing for trout is perhaps the most sporty and difficult way to practice. It is the most conservationist modality: it allows the capture and release of the fish in all cases, by using very small hooks which, in most cases, have previously had the death of the hook removed, the small anchor that ensures that the piece, once nailed, does not disengage easily. Fly fishing rods are also of variable length, depending on where you are going to fish (a small stream, a river, a swamp, the sea).
Fly lines differ from nylon and dacron used in other fishing methods; The reason is none other than the fly, as it does not weigh practically, it must be propelled with the recurrent launch, in several phases, of a heavy line, forward and backward. Fly casting is a complex discipline that requires some practice, but that later, in the river, allows you to place the lure almost anywhere without making the slightest noise or splash. Coated with various plastics, there are different types of fly lines: floating and sunken lines. Once the fly line has been wound on the reel, the fly fisherman adds a short braided line that joins the main one: it is called the rat tail, as the ends of the line are much lighter, and a smaller diameter, than the beginning. By last,
At the end of the line a fly is attached, which mimics the type of insect that some fish eat. Made of feathers, hair, or synthetic materials around a hook, it has almost no weight. Insect imitations, aquatic in their nymph, chrysalis, or adult states, can be as large as a golf ball or as small as an eraser. Fishermen choose their flies according to the species they are trying to fish at that time, the climate, the time of year, the river and a series of factors that make this fishing almost an exercise in understanding the river ecosystem.
To cast such a small bait, the angler swings the rod back and forth until a considerable amount of line is in the air. The launch will depend on the weight of the line. The casts are made over specific places, such as ponds and small reservoirs in streams, where the fly can touch the water and then float (dry fly fishing) or sink (drowned fly fishing). If a fish bites, the fisherman will pick up the line with his left hand, if he is not left-handed, while holding the rod with his right so that the hook, first, is stuck in the mouth of the fish, and then maintain the necessary tension to collect the piece. The fisherman therefore fights the fish many times by pulling the line with his hand instead of winding the line on the reel.
Trawling
Dragging or trolling, another form of sport fishing in fresh water, is carried out from a boat that moves slowly over areas where fish can be caught, dragging a rod with natural or artificial bait and a line of tens of meters. Trawling is also the preferred method for catching large fish in salt water, requiring a boat capable of navigating the sea and equipped with fishing seats (a rotary chair) and particularly strong fishing tackle. Once a fish bites and hooks on the hook, the boat stops; the fight begins. Trawlers use heavy rods and dacron or steel lines to prevent the sharp teeth of some species – like pike in freshwater – from cutting the line effortlessly.
