I grew up fishing, skateboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, playing baseball, playing in bands and generally getting into trouble as a younger man. I still surf and skate and wakeboard from time to time and I'm generally amazed at how friendly, welcoming and uncompetitive anglers are. I very rarely encounter any "get off my wave" type attitudes, it's mostly people asking how it's going or telling me what bait is and isn't working. I've had more friendly conversations with strangers with a fishing pole in my hand than I have with a drink in my hand. What a relaxing way to get away from the computer and screens.
If you're interested, there are some great youtube resources for learning how to fish. I'm a bass fisherman so I'd recommend looking for videos and articles from bassresource, tacitcal bassin, and flukemaster. For anyone interested, bass fishing is a much more active form of fishing than most people imagine fishing to be. You're actively casting and retrieving rather than tossing a line into the water and waiting. Here's a video of a really great good ole Alabama boy doing some topwater bass fishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvP0GBBiaLg
Edit: I live in New Jersey about 10 miles outside of New York City and fish for bass nearly every weekend. I've caught bass in Central Park before. There are fish in nearly every park pond across the country.
Lure fishing "cast and retrieve" as opposed to waiting is very common and not at all just a bass thing fyi. Maybe it has something to do with the particular species here in mid east coast Australia but fishing stores have tons of space dedicated to lures.
I remember fishing as a kid, my dad would be bait fishing while I lure fished because bait was super boring.
Same in NZ. Cast and wait is what we did as 5 year olds, but once we were older we had lures and better rods and reels and it was a lot more fun. Also caught more interesting fish!
I've found the same thing with hunting, at least in New Zealand.
Hunting is a bit different in NZ to the USA, you tend to walk the whole day, stopping at points to look with your binoculars, rather than sitting in a tree all day waiting for animals to walk by.
Every hunter I've met when out has been happy to give tips on where they've seen animals or sign, and to give tips or suggestions on where to go.
Of course, everyone has their "spot X" that they won't give up, but apart from that they're happy to share their knowledge and stories, especially when out in the field.
Did you have regular "get off my wave" encounters surfing or skating?
My surfing experience is a bit limited, but barring a few wannabee edgy teens "friendly, welcoming and uncompetitive" very much describes my experience with skaters everywhere.
I spent a lot of time fishing as a child, as my father was an avid fisherman. Some of my best memories are of stream and lake fishing in the Sierras, tuna fishing off boats in Cabo, and bass fishing of the coast near Del Mar.
And yet I can't get myself to do it as an adult, even though I have two young children who I know would love it. It's with very mixed emotion that I decide not to go. My social circle finds fishing repugnant, and while that's a factor, I could just do it and not tell them. But there is also the aspect of hooking a fish and dragging it in for sport. I eat meat and don't even find the act of fishing particular offensive, but I guess I do have some buddhist sentiments lurking in the back of my mind. It seems that if I wish to harvest fish I should do so in the quickest and least painful way, and not as a sport. I do wish I did not have this lingering concern as I would love to go fishing without guilt.
I do not take offense to anyone else fishing for sport, so forgive me if my comment sounds judgmental, as that is not my intent.
I feel the same way. I fished as a child and have some good memories of it. I also have some friends as an adult who I know would benefit socially from coming fishing with me.
But ethically I just can't do it.
I don't want to sound judgmental either, but I'd encourage anyone who feels this way and is still eating other animals to reconsider their positions.
I grew up fishing as well with the same wonderful memories, but can't enjoy it with my kids for the same reasons you mentioned. There is something beautiful about the slow, patience of fishing that feels refreshing. I just can't imagine someone stabbing a metal hook through my cheek and dragging me out of my home. But I'd love to find an activity that feels similar to fishing without enforcing my dominance over a wild animal.
Try sailing. No need to have an expensive yacht - a sailing dinghy or a humble daysailer will do. (In fact, the smaller the boat the more direct and intense the experience will be.) Older but perfectly usable small boats are surprisingly cheap. What you do need of course is a quiet stretch of water, preferably without too much other maritime traffic.
Read up a bit and have a try yourself, ideally on a smaller lake during a light breeze. Perhaps using a rented or borrowed boat first.
And if fiddling with sails is not your thing, or your area has only rivers but no lakes, canoeing can be very relaxing too. Today you can buy light but sturdy inflatable canoes made from hi-tech drop-stitch material that take just 10mins to deploy.
Of course, even when the risks are minimal, always think about safety - life vests etc., especially in case you take children with you.
The cognitive modules that govern dominance and hunting are completely different things, in us as in all hunting species. We don't actually treat prey as we treat conspecifics we wish to dominate. Neither do cats or mantis shrimp.
In terms of humaneness, I would say catching your own fish compares favourably with trawling and similar methods. I think fish there are mostly left to suffocate or freeze after being hauled up and chucked into the boat's hold.
I never thought much about fishing until the day I had a large catfish flopping around on my kitchen floor (catfish live quite a while out of water). Having been mainly a catch & release type, this would be the first fish I ate in quite a while and I was acutely aware (obviously) that I had to kill a live animal before I could eat it. So I said a short prayer to the fish gods and plunged a knife into its brain and it died instantly.
Tasted pretty good.
Fast forward two decades or so later. Neighbor dogs broke into my chicken coop and killed most of the flock. Now I have a handful of bloody chickens lying around slowly dying. The only humane thing to do is to kill them quickly. So grab each one carefully, quickly snap its neck and it's dead.
Although one of the situations was clearly not initiated by me, the feeling I had in both cases was essentially the same: regret, but that's how life goes sometimes.
Don't haste to kill it. Chicken are prey birds and fight all the time with other chicken. Can cure serious injuries surprisingly fast and recover from grizzly attacks.
Just apply Aloe vera in the damaged parts, feed well, keep it warm in a calm place isolated from other chicken and wait. They will benefit also if you allow them eat the remaining chunks of aloe (only the transparent gel, not the bitter green parts).
I think the author that captures fishing best is Hemingway. If you’ve never fished, or never quite got why fishing might be enjoyable, I’d highly recommend ‘Islands In The Stream” by Hemingway, or his collection of short stories “Hemingway on fishing”.
He does an amazing job of making the reader “feel” what it feels like to fish. Fishing is all about how it makes you feel (IMO). It’s less about the technical aspects of rods and equipment and strategy (as it might seem to a non fisherman, since fishermen tak about this stuff incessantly) more about a state of mind that no other activity can emulate.
Only now did I get to know this about it - from the Wikipedia article:
[ The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952.[1] It was the last major work of fiction by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba.[2]
In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.[2] ]
A book I love (and that's saying something because I never got the whole love of reading) is "The Young Man and the Sea". I have no idea the author or relation to Hemingways work, as I've never read "The Old Man and the Sea".
Love fishing, slayin bass, rentin a crappy boat and drinkin zodes is an IDEAL time for me. One of the best parts is that you can catch 'real' fish and have a good time with crappy walmart rods. I think 50 bucks is probably enough to get you started. It aint for everyone though. my love of fishing started as a young buck exploring my neighborhood with other dudes, finding little ponds etc and trying to catch anything!
I'm overcome by curiosity to find out what "zode" means as well. Like others, I assumed it's slang for beer, but I can't find anything related on the internet about it..
No other activity settles my mind quite like fly fishing. Contrary to popular belief, fly fishing’s primary objective is to catch fish, but I have to admit that perfecting the cast sometimes takes most of my focus. If I’m catching fish, great! If not, no matter, I’ll be enthralled with trying to gracefully land a caddis imitation 40 feet away over and over and over again. Once I picked up a fly rod I never looked back. The casting is pure poetry.
Fellow HN reader/fly fisher here. I tie my own flies as well. As a friend once said - you get to work on these flies through the year as a way to do something fishing related when you don't have time to fish, then when you catch a fish on a fly you tied you can tell it "I started catching you months ago."
You should try building your own rod as well. You can do it pretty cheap and it's a he'll of a good feeling when you get that fish on your own rod and fly.
If you'd like to take it to the next level, try tenkara fly fishing. Not only is your 40ft span reduced to ~15ft, but casting is even more challenging (quite a few techniques!) and you now have to account for a lot more concealment (of yourself), and fighting/landing fish is quite a challenge when you have no reel. It's extremely rewarding to lang even the smallest fish!
My favorite part about fishing is that it has nothing to do with catching fish. As a catch-and-release fly fisherman, the entire point of the exercise is in matching the hatch, tying a perfect fly, perfecting your cast, having the perfect presentation, and finding the exact right riffle. At that point, actually hooking a fish is just a side effect of what you are already doing.
I often do basically that. I love fly fishing the pond on my parents property but the weeds and algae blooms make cleaning the hook annoying chore every few casts. So I just cut the hooks off. I have fished that pond so many years I just don't really have any need to reel in a fish there. I know exactly how big of bass and bluegill the pond supports and simply love perfecting the art and watching the fish slam the flies I learned to tie by catching the insects I have seen there growing up.
My sentiments exactly. I fish barbless, only takes a second to get a hook out. Learning to tie a 16-20 and seaguar knot (if you don't use tippet rings, which you should!) with hemostats in seconds makes for Zen filled day.
Used to fish a lot in my teens and twenties. I liken it a lot to golf in that its a great waste-the-day activity that can be enjoyed alone or with friends.
Fast-forward several years and I don't fish much now. Last Fall I took two of my kids up to Central Oregon to camp for a week and watch the solar eclipse. I had never taken them fishing as I figured they'd hate it in this age of instant gratification mobile devices. Nonetheless I decided to drive to Walmart, buy some gear and spend half a day fishing in the river.
We did. They loved it, proclaiming "Dad this is so fun. Why have you never taken us fishing before?!"
Too bad the bay area doesn't have great fishing. You gotta go up to the delta / clear lake. Palo Alto even has a "Palo Alto resident only" lake.
Deep-sea/surf/pier/lake/pond/river/stream fishing each have their unique challenges. Also contrary to popular belief some styles / quarry don't require extreme patience.
Maybe it's because I grew up bass fishing and associate it with good times with my dad, but nothing centers me quite like finding calm water and throwing a jig or Texas rig for Largemouth. I'd suggest it to anyone; don't knock it until you try it. It's my #1 de-stressor.
Spearfishing fits into this narrative of escape as well, but to a greater extreme. It's really changed my life since I started two years ago and being thirty feet under the waves stalking in a kelp forest on the weekends affords me an incredible reserve of patience in the workday world.
> One thing that keeps many people from fishing is the simple fact that they have never done it. Indeed, I think it is probably the only reason, apart from vegetarianism. (If you do not eat meat or otherwise object to taking the lives of gill-bearing aquatic craniates, there is always catch-and-release.)
Fishing is one of the cruelest things I can imagine doing to an animal. The closest way I can put it to a human is... imagine thinking you're about to bite into an apple and then being yanked, naked, into outer space by a metal hook through your face.
It's significantly more cruel than instantly ending the life of a cow or chicken, even if you catch and release. Just go sit in a boat and do drugs or something.
I grew up fishing in a family that loves fishing, boating, and being near the water in general. I fished prolifically every day after school in a small stream a few kilometers from my house until I was 13 years old. I quit when one day I went out by myself (like I usually did) and within a few minutes I caught a pike. My first. I landed it to remove the hook from its mouth and that's when it wriggled violently in my hands, piercing my right hand thumb in the fleshy bit with the hook that was still attached to its mouth.
At first, the hook wasn't too deep into my flesh, but the pike kept wriggling, and within seconds it came out the other side of my thumb, right through the thumbnail. I don't think I've ever felt such pain at that age. I was bleeding all over the grass, crying and panicking with this slowly dying fish attached to my hand. Reluctantly, but knowing I had to do so, I found a dagger in my tackle box and cut off the fish's head. It didn't go well and the creature died a horrible death as I cut its head off with my weak left hand, trying to ignore the pain in my right. But it was finally dead.
My hand started hurting a lot. So much, in fact, that I couldn't pack up my things and ride my bike back home, so I sat down hoping that someone would come by to help me out. The pike's head still dangled from my thumb. Eventually a kid about my own age saw me (crying my eyes out) and his mother drove me home. A few hours later, I was in the doctor's office and with some local anesthetic, he cut the barbed part of the hook off and slid the rest of it out the way it entered. He thought the whole situation was kind of funny.
The kid's mom who had driven me back home had wrapped up the pike in a newspaper and given it to my parents who promptly threw it in the garbage since it was covered in my blood and badly mangled from my botched up knife work.
I didn't fish again until two years ago (I was 32) when I thought I'd try it again for old times' sake. I caught a fish pretty early on. It was a tiny little bass with this enormous hook of my lure poking through its upper lip. I felt like crap. If this creature felt the way that I must have felt, I couldn't continue fishing. I sold my gear on Craigslist for cheap just to get it out the house and said goodbye to it forever.
Agreed, also:
>Fish caught on bait typically suffer a much higher mortality rate. About one third (33%) of fish caught on bait will die after being released and over 60% of deep hooked fish die. In general if the fish is bleeding it will not survive.
And:
>Researchers from Queen's University, in Belfast, have proven that when fish are subjected to pain stimuli, the signals by no means simply ebb away in the spinal cord. Scientists have discovered sensitive skin areas directly behind the gill covers of goldfish and trout. Using implanted electrodes, they have been able to show that the nerve cells located there send signals directly to the fish's brain.
When researchers poked the animals with needles, a flurry of neuron messages were transmitted to the endbrain -- the very region of the brain where pain signals are also processed by birds and mammals.
Your entertainment, should not come at the expense of another sentient being's suffering.
> The closest way I can put it to a human is... imagine thinking you're about to bite into an apple and then being yanked, naked, into outer space by a metal hook through your face.
That's nonsensical, really. It's not equivalent.
Fish don't wear clothes and they don't think the same way humans do. So they're not thinking, "Yikes, I was about to eat - while naked oddly enough - but now I'm being yanked into space".
Also hooks don't damage a fish mouth like it would a human mouth. Fish don't even bleed from getting caught, usually. That's how different it is. There are exceptions of course, they can get damaged or even killed with an unlucky hook, but in the case of a human it'd be exceptional if they didn't incur significant damage (both physically and mentally). So trying to say the experience would be that similar is pretty silly.
> It's significantly more cruel than instantly ending the life of a cow or chicken, even if you catch and release.
You mean the cows and chickens that often live their entire lives inside buildings squished together, in cages, standing in their waste, pumped up with drugs, etc?
I'd say that's much more cruel. I'd rather be a fish than a cow or chicken.
The "ok" doesn't exist, just moral/ethical standards we set for ourselves. We could go by nature's standards but we can also do better (social care is nice to have).
The practice of taking lives for pastime doesn't sit well with my ethical beliefs for two reasons: the first is empathy for another creature, and the other is I'm uncomfortable with destroying something so complex for no real benefit to me. It's like a child destroying sand castles others have built, amplified thousand times.
A lot of people need fishing to survive (I've done it while living at a shore village near armutlu) so I'm not sure how imagining being shot into space via a hook solves that problem.
I've been fishing for a few years and learned mostly on my own by scouring forums plus lots of trial and error. I've always likened the draw to be similar to the problem solving nature of programming and engineering in general, and have always wondered if there are other engineers that enjoy fishing. From some of the comments here it looks like there are some, but not many.
I've actually created several pieces of fishing software, for personal use, such as a journal/logging app for recording outings (locations, conditions, results, etc.), a crawler/scraper that extracts EXIF location info for good fishing spots, a notifications app for ideal fishing conditions, etc.
I owned a domain for a couple of years with the intent to crawl Flickr for fishing photos and to link them on a map. Never got around to it though. A shame as I feel like it would have got me fishing more often.
For me, I've never been able to get over the internal conflict of wanting to build a useful tool like a map of fishing spots and releasing it openly, with the downside of good fishing spots getting overrun should the tool become popular. I also started working on a similar idea as yours a couple years ago, but for Instagram instead. It turned out the GPS tagging on Instagram was fairly inaccurate, and sometimes intentionally misleading, especially amongst anglers who tag incorrect locations since the number one no-no is spot burning.
Funny. Just saw this omw to bed before I totally blow off work tomorrow to take a newbie floating down a PNW river in my driftboat in search of his first steelhead.
Angling is the most popular sport in the UK based on participation numbers. It is televised at least once a year as a legit sport.
However, The Compleat Angler is a different kind of fishing, and what the author of the linked piece is alluding to is a little harder to come by these days.
I live < 5 minutes from the Thames. I'm about 30 minutes walk from Teddington Lock where the Thames stops/starts becoming tidal. This area was once inhabited by Alexander Pope and he referred to it as "Arcadia". There is a corner in the river near me, the view of which from a hill on the opposite bank is protected by an act of Parliament to this day.
I have never seen somebody fishing down there. What's more, it's way too busy to be able to catch fish or enjoy the solitary lifestyle an angler might be hoping for.
I'd love to know why anglers avoid it. I'd love to know where they go instead. As a man about to turn 40, perhaps I would like to learn to fish myself, and spend the odd weekend or even mid-week day (yay for flexible working), sat next to the water, quietly awaiting a fish.
I really love fishing. It has become something like a tradition for the guy-part of my family to go on a fishing trip every year and spend some weekends at a nearby river.
Fishing taught me many valuable lessons in my childhood and youth. I remember countless hours of fixing my rod after casting into a tree, days without even having something nibbeling when all you want is finally catching a fish and of course loosing a fish right before you get it out of the water (some of these memories are still painful today). But all that didn't matter when you finally caught that huge beast.
Early on I learned the value of patience and delayed satisfaction, how to manage anger and defeats, and using trial and error to solve problems (not catching enough fish). It also gave me a perspective on what it really means to eat animals. When you kill and evicerate your first catch, meat stops being something you just buy at the super market.
> One thing that keeps many people from fishing is the simple fact that they have never done it. Indeed, I think it is probably the only reason
I have tried fishing a few times, and found that it isn't for me. I'm extremely bad at it. The whole setup is very clumsy and difficult to transport by anything but a car, and it's all quite boring. If the point is sitting on a chair in nature while reading or having a beer then fine, but fishing doesn't look like a useful addition to that kind of setup.
Also I don't enjoy the idea of hurting wildlife (I'm not a vegetarian but kind of wish I would be).
"Fishing" isn't really one thing. There are a lot of different kinds to try. My preferred kind is fly fishing for trout. You are constantly casting and retrieving so unless you're in a boat there is no sitting down, and being able to cast is an art in itself.
"there is nothing better than being in or near water with a long stick attached to some kind of cord."
Yoga or meditation could? (in a quiet area with water if you like)
I guess this is difficult to totally order set of possible activities by their goodness. Activities each have their strengths. But I'm uncomfortable with qualifying an activity that involves purposefully hurting or killing living beings good. There must be better ways to spend one's life.
Instead of catching fishes, start catching ideas! Write, paint or draw near a lake! :-)
I can't understood the appeal of fishing. I grew up fishing with my grandfather which was a lot of fun, but since then I've always found it mind-numbingly boring. When someone takes me fishing now (or to a baseball game, which is equally tedious), I always bring a book to read. I wish I could tune in to why people like these activities, but I seem not to have the gene for it.
Whenever I hit a creative drought, I go fishing out on Black Lake. Yeah, with the wind in your hair and the water flowing.
It's perfect for inspiration.
It isn't about fishing, we ain't been fishing for years now.
Old Neville over there, he's never been fishing.
It's about telling the tales.
You got to set the scene, spin the yarn.
That's what fishing's about.
Steven Wright said, "There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot." I was always just standing on the shore (or in a boat) with a rod in my hand, like an idiot. So, yeah, fishing isn't going to do it for me. Ultimate frisbee is pretty good, though...
>There is nothing worse than sitting at a desk all day. And there is nothing better than being in or near water with a long stick attached to some kind of cord.
Hiking along that water - that can be wonderful. Just leave the fishing pole to people who care.
I'd love to see that list as well. I imagine that in different times and places that this factoid has been true for a number of books. I read the same thing, and find it very believable, about "Dr. Chase's Recipes" (https://www.ebay.com/bhp/dr-chase). I tend to see copies of it more commonly than Walton's book in used book stores in the US.
All along the Bay Area coast, you can catch surf perch, striped bass, dungeness crabs, and many more. Pacifica Pier and Half Moon Bay jetty are popular spots that doesn't require a license, but please make sure to read up on CDFW regulations.
I would highly recommend Kirk Lombard's "The Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast" It details a lot of the species of fish around the bay area, and also non fish species that are foraged like clams and seaweed.
I second the suggestion for Kirk Lombard's "The Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast". One of the most entertaining books I've read in awhile.
Kirk also does tours, sells what he catches and has an entertaining youtube channel.
There are a lot of people who have moved to be closer to fish. I'm thinking about experiences I've had in the northwest, and Canada, but there are hundreds more places. Fishing is definitely a lifestyle.
Im with you on this. Ive been fishing a couple times, caught some dinner, but I've never felt the urge to go fishing. Lots of more fun active outdoorsy things to do that satisfy all the wanting to be out in nature, but are also active and exciting and fun. Might just be sampling bias, but all the people I know who love to fish are in no shape to climb a rock wall.
It certainly can be, but doesn't have to be. If you figure out the right time, place, and lure, it can be pretty engaging.
If you're getting bored, might try a moving to a new spot or
switching lures. Sometimes it takes some experimentation and luck to figure out the magic. There's one place I like to go that is super slow and boring, unless there's a thunderstorm moving in. Things pick up quickly then.
I love the outdoors, fished plenty as a kid, but don't do it anymore. I'd rather be backpacking, climbing, paddling my kayak -- anything that gets me outdoors _and_ gets my body and brain in sync with each other. Fishing just doesn't do that for me.
It seems based on this thread that lots of HN people expect tastes (in activities or in foods) to be universal? They're not! Everyone in my family loves fishing; I can tolerate it if I'm spending time with them or if there is boating involved. Yet I'm perfectly happy sitting for hours in the cold woods waiting for a deer to wander into range. It doesn't mean that I'm right or wrong or my brother is right or wrong or whatever...
If you have a strong opinion about eating or not eating fish or meat harvested in one fashion or another, that also is a matter of taste. You and everyone around you will be happier from the moment you accept that.
In general, I agree with you, but there are degrees of morality. I hope most would agree that someone who's tastes include hunting endangered animals should not be accommodated. Likewise, if you were to go fishing in someone's koi pond or go hunting for a buffalo that someone was raising on their land, you'd also be rightfully punished.
So it stands to reason that all of these "tastes" exist on a spectrum from morally repugnant to the Buddhist practice of refusing to kill anything. And while we all draw our own line on that spectrum between what we consider acceptable and unacceptable, society will also draw that line and consider some of those activities to be illegal.
I think the Western myth that Buddhists are somehow all peaceful people who wouldn't hurt anything is debunked by events in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Yes, you can say "well, the Buddhists who attack minorities aren't True Buddhists", but that's the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
Just because not all Buddhists live up to it doesn't make it not a Buddhist practice nor a "no true scotsman" fallacy. The fact that it's part of Buddhist teachings and many Buddhists do live it does make what I said correct.
If you're interested, there are some great youtube resources for learning how to fish. I'm a bass fisherman so I'd recommend looking for videos and articles from bassresource, tacitcal bassin, and flukemaster. For anyone interested, bass fishing is a much more active form of fishing than most people imagine fishing to be. You're actively casting and retrieving rather than tossing a line into the water and waiting. Here's a video of a really great good ole Alabama boy doing some topwater bass fishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvP0GBBiaLg
Edit: I live in New Jersey about 10 miles outside of New York City and fish for bass nearly every weekend. I've caught bass in Central Park before. There are fish in nearly every park pond across the country.