Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish A fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are "cold-blooded", or ectothermic, allowing their body temperatures to vary as ambient temperatures change. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. They can be found in nearly all aquatic. The term may also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life. It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through its skin. Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic or such as molluscs The Mollusca, common name molluscs or mollusks,[note 1] is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. This is the largest marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms. Numerous molluscs also live in freshwater and terrestrial habitats. Molluscs are highly diverse, (shellfish Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater. In addition a few species of land crabs are eaten, for, squid Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two longer tentacles, octopus The octopus is a cephalopod mollusk in the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Most octopuses have no internal or external skeleton, allowing them to squeeze through tight places) and edible marine invertebrates An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata.

Fishing techniques include hand gathering Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters, spearfishing Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing that has been used throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks, netting A fishing net or fishnet is a net that is used for fishing. Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. 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, angling Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself can be dressed with lures or bait. A and trapping A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps may have the form of a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it. The mesh wraps around the frame and then tapers into the inside of the trap. When a fish swims inside through this. Recreational Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival, commercial Commercial fishing is the activity of capturing fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Large scale commercial fishing is also known and artisanal Artisan fishing is a term sometimes used to describe small scale commercial or subsistence fishing practises. The term particularly applies to coastal or island ethnic groups using traditional techniques such as rod and tackle, arrows and harpoons, throw nets and drag nets, and maybe traditional fishing boats. It does not usually cover the concept fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure or sport, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in third-world countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Mostly, recreational fishers use angling methods and commercial fishers use netting methods.

There is an intricate link between various fishing techniques and knowledge about the fish and their behaviour including migration Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annual, and over distances ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. Fish usually migrate because of diet or reproductive needs, although in some cases the reason for migration remains unknown, foraging Forage fish, also called prey fish, are small fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding. They include the fishes of the family Clupeidae , as well as anchovies, capelin and habitat Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy. Marine biology differs from. The effective use of fishing techniques often depends on this additional knowledge.^[1] Which techniques are appropriate is dictated mainly by the target species and by its habitat.

Contents 1 Hand fishing 2 Spearfishing 3 Netting 4 Angling 4.1 Line fishing 4.2 Angling with a rod 4.3 Other angling 5 Trapping 6 Animals 7 Other techniques 8 Destructive techniques 9 History 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

Hand fishing

See also: Gathering seafood by hand Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters

It is possible to fish and gather many sea foods with minimal equipment by using the hands. Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater. In addition a few species of land crabs are eaten, for or kelp Kelp are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae (class Phaeophyceae) and are classified as the order Laminariales. There are about 300 different genera. Some species can be very long and form kelp forests up off the beach A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea or lake. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, waves or cobblestones. The particles of which the beach is composed can sometimes instead have biological origins, such as shell fragments or coralline algae, or doing some digging for clams In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs. The word can also be used in a more limited sense, to mean bivalves which burrow in sediment, as opposed to ones which attach themselves to the substrate , or ones which can swim and are migratory, like scallops. In or crabs True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax. Other animals, such as hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs and crab lice, are not true crabs. The earliest evidence for shellfish gathering dates back to a 300,000 year old site in France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, called Terra Amata Terra Amata was an open site where Acheulean flint tools were found, dating it to the Lower Paleolithic. It was excavated by a team of archaeologists led by Henri de Lumley, who believed the site contained a series of superimposed living floors and who interpreted arrangements of stones at the site as the foundations of huts or windbreaks. This. This is a hominid The Hominidae form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans, and orangutans site as modern Homo sapiens Humans are known taxonomically as Homo sapiens , and are the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. However, in some cases "human" is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo did not appear until around 50,000 years ago.^[2][3]

Ama diver in Japan

• Flounder tramping This method of fishing was used in the coastal waters and river estuaries of South West Scotland for centuries. Once trapped the fish were often secured by impaling them on a leister before being bagged. A leister is the local name for a trident or three pronged long handled spear. Although traditional, the use of leisters to aid capture is no - Every August, the small Scottish Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland village of Palnackie Palnackie is a village in the Parish of Buittle, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in Scotland. Since 1995 it has been in Dumfries and Galloway Council Administrative Region hosts the world flounder tramping championships where flounder are captured by stepping on them.

• Noodling Noodling is fishing for catfish using only bare hands, practiced primarily in the southern United States. Many other names, such as catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, gurgling, tickling and stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity. Noodling is currently legal in eleven of the fifty United States: is practiced in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. The noodler places his hand inside a catfish Catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny hole. If all goes as planned, the catfish swims forward and latches onto the noodler's hand, and can then be dragged out of the hole.^[4]

• Pearl divers Pearl hunting or pearl diving refers to a now largely obsolete method of retrieving pearls from pearl oysters, freshwater pearl mussels and, on rare occasions, other nacre-producing creatures, such as abalone - traditionally harvested oysters The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified by free-diving to depths of thirty metres.^[5] Today, free-diving recreational fishers catch lobster Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets more than US$1 billion annually and abalone Abalone are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis (syn. Sulculus). Family Haliotidae has no subfamilies. Common names for abalones also include ear-shells, sea-ears and Venus's-ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, by hand.

• Trout binning Trout binning is a method of fishing, possibly fictional, described in the English periodical "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction" . It is described as: - is another method of taking trout. Rocks in a rocky stream are struck with a sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool consisting of a large, flat head attached to a lever . The head is typically made of metal. The sledgehammer can apply more impulse than other hammers, due to its large size. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area. This is in contrast to other types of hammer, which concentrate. The force of the blow stuns the fish.^[6]

• Trout tickling Trout tickling is the art of rubbing the underbelly of a trout using fingers. If done properly, the trout will go into a trance-like state after a minute or so, and can then easily be thrown onto the nearest bit of dry land. The technique was a common practice used by boys, poachers and working men in times of economic stress, particularly during - In the British Isles, the practice of catching trout Trout is the name for number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water. Trout are classifed as an oily fish by hand is known as trout tickling; it is an art mentioned several times in the plays of Shakespeare William Shakespeare [a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".[b] His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,[c] 154 sonnets, two long.^[7]

Spearfishing

Main article: Spearfishing Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing that has been used throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks

Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing conducted with an ordinary spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron, or bronze. The most common design is of a metal spearhead, shaped like a triangle or or a specialised variant such as a harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal. A harpoon can also be used as a weapon, trident A trident , also called a leister or gig, is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and was also a military weapon. Tridents are featured widely in mythical, historical and modern culture. The sea god Poseidon or Neptune is classically depicted bearing a trident, arrow An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures or eel spear.^[8][9] Some fishing spears use slings A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone. It is also known as the shepherd's sling (or rubber loops) to propel the spear.

A Hupa Hupa refers to a Native American tribe in northwestern California. The official name of the tribe is the Hoopa Valley Tribe man with his spear

• Bowfishing - uses a bow and arrow to kill fish in shallow water from above.

• Gigging - uses small trident type spears with long handles for gigging bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging suckers and other rough fish in shallow water. Gigging is popular in the American South and Midwest.

• Hawaiian slings - have a sling separate from the spear, in the manner of an underwater bow and arrow.

• Harpoons - Spearfishing with barbed poles was widespread in palaeolithic times.^[10] Cosquer cave in Southern France contains cave art over 16,000 years old, including drawings of seals which appear to have been harpooned.

• Polespears - have a sling attached to the spear.

• Modern spearguns - traditional spearfishing is restricted to shallow waters, but the development of the speargun has made the method much more efficient. With practice, divers are able to hold their breath for up to four minutes and sometimes longer. Of course, a diver with underwater breathing equipment can dive for much longer periods.

• Tridents - are three-pronged spears. They are also called leisters or gigs. They are used for spear fishing and were formerly also a military weapon. They feature widely in early mythology and history.

Netting

Main article: Fishing net

Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. About 180 AD the Greek author Oppian wrote the Halieutica, a didactic poem about fishing. He described various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, and various traps "which work while their masters sleep".

Netting is the principal method of commercial fishing, though longlining, trolling, dredging and traps are also used.

A fisherman casting a net in Kerala, India Oil painting of gillnetting, The salmon fisher by Eilif Peterssen. Fishing with nets in Cà Mau, Vietnam.

• Artisanal techniques

• Chinese fishing nets - are shore operated lift nets.^[11] Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets with diameters of twenty metres or more. The nets are dipped into the water and raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved.

• Lampuki nets - are an example of a traditional artisanal use of nets. Since Roman times, Maltese fishers have cut the larger, lower fronds from palm trees which they then weave into large flat rafts. The rafts are pulled out to sea by a luzzu, a small traditional fishing boat. In the middle of the day, lampuki fish (the Maltese name for mahi-mahi) school underneath the rafts, seeking the shade, and are caught by the fishers using large mesh nets.

• Cast nets - are round nets with small weights distributed around the edge. They are also called throw nets. The net is caste or thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in.^[12] This simple device has been in use, with various modifications, for thousands of years.

• Drift net - are nets which are not anchored. They are usually gillnets, and are commonly used in the coastal waters of many countries. Their use on the high seas is prohibited, but still occurs.

• Ghost nets - are nets that have been lost at sea. They can be a menace to marine life for many years.

• Gillnets - catch fish which try to pass through by snagging on the gill covers. Trapped, the fish can neither advance through the net nor retreat.

• Hand nets - are small nets held open by a hoop. They have been used since antiquity. They are also called scoop nets, and are used for scooping up fish near the surface of the water. They may or may not have a handle–if they have a long handle they are called dip nets. When used by anglers to help land fish they are called landing nets.^[13] Because hand netting is not destructive to fish, hand nets are used for tag and release, or capturing aquarium fish.

• Seine nets - are large fishing nets that can be arranged in different ways. In purse seining fishing the net hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. Danish seining 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.

• Surrounding net -

• Trawl nets - are large nets, conical in shape, designed to be towed in the sea or along the sea bottom. The trawl is pulled through the water by one or more boats, called trawlers. The activity of pulling the trawl through the water is called trawling.

Angling

Main article: Angling "Trolling for blue fish" lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1866 Fishermen using jiggerpoles for jigging from the Queenscliff pier

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" (hook). The hook is usually attached to a line, and is sometimes weighed down by a sinker so it sinks in the water. This is the classic "hook, line and sinker" arrangement, used in angling since prehistoric times. The hook is usually baited with lures or bait fish.

Additional arrangements include the use of a fishing rod, which can be fitted with a reel, and functions as a delivery mechanism for casting the line. Other delivery methods for projecting the line include fishing kites and cannons, kontiki rafts and remote controlled devices. Floats can can also be used to help set the line or function as bite indicators. The hook can be dressed with lures or bait. Angling is the principal method of sport fishing, but commercial fisheries also use angling methods involving multiple hooks, such as longlining or commercial trolling.

Line fishing

Line fishing is fishing with a fishing line. A fishing line is any cord made for fishing. Important parameters of a fishing line are its length, material, and weight (thicker, sturdier lines are more visible to fish). Factors that may determine what line an angler chooses for a given fishing environment include breaking strength, knot strength, UV resistance, castability, limpness, stretch, abrasion resistance, and visibility.

Modern fishing lines are usually made from artificial substances. The most common type is monofilament, made of a single strand. There are also braided fishing lines and thermally fused superlines.

• Droplining - a dropline consists of a long fishing line set vertically down into the water, with a series of baited hooks Droplines have a weight at the bottom and a float at the top. They are not usually as long as longlines and have fewer hooks.

• Handlining - is fishing with a single fishing line, baited with lures or bait fish, which is held in the hands. Handlining can be done from boats or from the shore. It is used mainly to catch groundfish and squid, but smaller pelagic fish can also be caught.

• Jiggerpole -

• Jigging -

• Longlining - is a commercial technique that uses a long heavy fishing line with a series of hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from the main line by means of branch lines called "snoods". Longlines are usually operated from specialised boats called longliners. They use a special winch to haul in the line, and can operate in deeper waters targeting pelagic species such as swordfish, tuna, halibut and sablefish.

Slab

• Slabbing - involves repetitively lifting and dropping a flat lure, usually made of 1 to 2.5 oz of lead painted to look like a baitfish, through a school of actively feeding fish that the angler has located on a fish finder. Used on white and striped bass in the reservoirs of the southern USA.

• Trolling - is fishing with one or more baited lines which are drawn through the water. This may be done by pulling the line behind a slow moving boat, or by slowly winding the line in when fishing from the land. Trolling is used to catch pelagic fish such as mackerel and kingfish.

External images
	Pelagic longline
	Dropline
	Trotline for catfish

• Trotlining - a trotline is like a dropline, except that a dropline has a series of hooks suspended vertically in the water, while a trotline has a series of hooks suspended horizontally in the water. Trotlines can be physically set in many ways, such as tying each end to something fixed, and adjusting the set of the rest of the line with weights and floats. They are used for catching crabs or fish, such as catfish, particularly across rivers.

Angling with a rod

Angling with a rod. Extreme rock fishing off Muriwai Beach, New Zealand An angler in his float tube plays a hooked pike.

Fishing rods give more control of the fishing line. The rod is usually fitted with a fishing reel which functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. Floats may also be used, and can function as bite indicators. The hook can be dressed with lures or bait.

• Bank fishing - fishing from river banks and similar shorelines. Bank fishing is usually performed with a rod and reel, although nets, traps, and spears can also be used. People who fish from a boat can sometimes access more areas in prime locations with greater ease than bank fishermen. However many people don’t own boats and find fishing from the bank has its own advantages. Bank fishing has its own requirements, and many things come into play for success, such as local knowledge, water depth, bank structure, location, time of day, and the type of bait and lures.

• Casting - the act of throwing the fishing line out over the water using a flexible fishing rod. The usual technique is for the angler to quickly flick the rod from behind toward the water.^[14] Casting is also a sport adjunct to fishing, much as shooting is to hunting. The sport is supervised by the International Casting Sport Federation, which sponsors tournaments and recognizes world records for accuracy and distance.

• Float tubes - small doughnut-shaped boats with an underwater seat in the "hole". Float tubes are used for fly fishing and enable the angler to reach deeper water without splashing and disturbing stillwater fish.

• Fly fishing - the use of artificial flies as lures. These are cast with specially constructed fly rods and fly lines. The fly line (today, almost always coated with plastic) is heavy enough cast in order to send the fly to the target. Artificial flies vary dramatically in size, weight and colour. Fly fishing is a distinct and ancient angling method, most renowned as a method for catching trout and salmon, but employed today for a wide variety of species including pike, bass, panfish, and carp, as well as marine species, such as redfish, snook, tarpon, bonefish and striped bass. There is a growing population of anglers whose aim is to catch as many different species as possible with the fly.

• Rock fishing - fishing from rocky outcrops into the sea. It is a popular pastime in Australia and New Zealand. It can be a dangerous pastime and claims many lives each year.

• Surfcasting - fishing from a shoreline using a rod to cast into the surf. With few exceptions, surf fishing is done in saltwater, often from a beach. The basic idea of most surfcasting is to cast a bait or lure as far out into the water as is necessary to reach the target fish from the shore. This may or may not require long casting distances and muscular techniques. Basic surf fishing can be done with a surfcasting rod between seven and twelve feet long, with an extended butt section, equipped with an appropriate spinning or conventional casting reel. Dedicated surfcasters usually possess an array of terminal and other tackle, with rods and reels of different lengths and actions, and lures and baits of different weights and capabilities. Depending on fishing conditions and the fish they are targeting, such surfcasters tailor bait and terminal tackle to rod and reel and the size and species of the fish. Reels and other equipment need to be constructed so they resist the corrosive and abrasive effects of salt and sand.

Other angling

• Bottom fishing - is fishing the bottom of a body of water. In the United Kingdom it is called "legering". A common rig for fishing on the bottom is a weight tied to the end of the line, with a hook about an inch up line from the weight. The method can be used both with hand lines and rods. There are fishing rods specialized for bottom fishing, called "donkas". The weight is used to cast or throw the line an appropriate distance. Bottom fishing can be done both from boats and from the land. It targets groundfish such as sucker fish, bream, catfish, and crappie.

• Fishing cannon -

• Ice fishing - is the practice of catching fish with lines and hooks through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. It is practised by hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit and by anglers in other cold or continental climates.

• Kayak fishing - has a long history, and has gained popularity in recent times. Many of the techniques used are the same as those used on other fishing boats, apart from difference is in the set-up, how each piece of equipment is fitted to the kayak, and how each activity is carried out on such a small craft.

• Kite fishing is said to have been invented in China. It was, and still is, used by the people of New Guinea and other Pacific Islands - either by cultural diffusion from China or independent invention. Kites can provide the boatless fishermen access to waters that would otherwise be available only to boats. 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 also be used for trolling a lure through the water. Suitable kites may be of very simple construction. Those of Tobi Island are a large leaf stiffened by the ribs of the fronds of the coconut palm. The fishing line may be made from coconut fibre and the lure made from spiders webs.^[15] Modern kitefishing is popular in New Zealand, where large delta kites of synthetic materials are used to fish from beaches^[16], taking a line and hooks far out past the breakers. Kite fishing is also emerging in Melbourne where sled kites are becoming popular, both off beaches and off boats and in freshwater areas. The disabled community are increasingly using the kites for fishing as they allow mobility impaired people to cast the bait further out than they would otherwise be able to.

• Kon Tiki -

• Boat anglers - Fishing is usually done either from a boat or from a shoreline or river bank. When fishing from a boat, pretty much any fishing technique can be used, from nets to fish traps, but some form of angling is by far the most common. Compared to fishing from the land, fishing from a boat allows more access to different fishing grounds and different species of fish. Some tackle is specialised for boat anglers, such as sea rods.

• Remote control fishing - Fishing can also be done using a remote controlled boat. This type of fishing is commonly referred to as RC fishing. The boat is usually one to three feet long and runs on a small DC battery. A radio transmitter controls the boat. The fisherman connects the fishing line/bait to the boat; drives it; navigating the water by manipulating the remote controller. The technique is growing in popularity. People have used home-made adaptations to remote control boats for this purpose, and recently commercial versions have appeared. There are also patented devices to adapt a regular RC boat into an RC fishing boat.^[17] There is debate about whether RC fishing should be legal. Most states will allow it if the line disconnects when a fish is hooked to the boat, and the fisherman reels in the fish with a fishing pole. When the RC boat is used to pull in the fish, it may be illegal unless on private property.^[18]

Trapping

Main article: Fish trap Fishermen with traditional fish traps, Hà Tây, Vietnam A typical wooden fish wheel Lobster pots on the beach at Beer, Devon.

Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. 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.

• Artisanal techniques

• Dam fishing - An artisanal technique called dam fishing is used by the Baka pygmies. This involves the construction of a temporary dam resulting in a drop in the water levels downstream -- allowing fish to be easily collected.^[19]

• Basket weir fish traps - were widely used in ancient times. They are shown in medieval illustrations and surviving examples have been found. 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.^[20]

• Fishing weir - In medieval Europe, large fishing weir structures were constructed from wood posts and wattle fences. 'V' shaped structures in rivers could be as long as 60 metres and worked by directing fish towards fish traps or nets. Such fish traps were evidently controversial in medieval England. The Magna Carta includes a clause requiring that they be removed: "All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea coast".^[21]

• Fish wheels - operate alongside streams, much as a water-powered mill wheel. A wheel complete with baskets and paddles is attached to a floating dock. The wheel rotates due to the current of the stream. The baskets on the wheel capture fish travelling upstream and transfer them into a holding tank. When the holding tank is full, the fish are removed.

• Lobster traps - also called lobster pots, are traps used to catch lobsters. They resemble fish traps, yet are usually smaller and consist of several sections. Lobster traps are also used to catch other crustaceans, such as crabs and crayfish. They can be constructed in various shapes, but the design strategy is to make the entry into the trap much easier than exit. The pots are baited and lowered into the water and checked frequently. Historically lobster pots were constructed with wood or metal. Today most traps are made from checkered wire and mesh. It is common for the trap to be weighted down with bricks. A bait bag is hung in the middle of the trap. In theory the lobster walks up the mesh and then falls into the wire trap. Bait varies from captain to captain but it is common to use herring. In commercial lobstering five to ten of these traps will be connected with line. A buoy marks each end of the string of pots. Two buoys are important to make retrieval easier and so captains don't set their traps over each other. Each buoy is painted differently so the various captains can identify their traps.

Animals

Chinese man with fishing cormorant.

• Cooperative human-dolphin fisheries date back to the ancient Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder.^[22] A modern human-dolphin fishery still takes place in Laguna, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Here, dolphins drive fish towards fishermen waiting along the shore and give them a signal when they can cast their nets. The dolphins then feed off the fish that manage to escape the nets.^[23][24]

• Cormorant fishing - In China and Japan, the practice of cormorant fishing is thought to date back some 1300 years. 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 from being swallowed. The fish are instead collected by the fisherman.^[25]

• Frigatebirds fishing - The people of Nauru used trained frigatebirds to fish on reefs.

• Portuguese Water Dogs - 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. 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.

• Remora fishing - 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 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).^[26] However, these accounts are probably apocryphal, and based on earlier, no longer extant accounts from the Indian Ocean region.

Other techniques

• Artisanal techniques

• Basnig -

Scientists carrying out a population and species survey using electrofishing equipment

• Electrofishing - is another recently developed technique, primarily used in freshwater by fisheries scientists. Electrofishing uses electricity to stun fish so they can be caught. It is commonly used in scientific surveys, sampling fish populations for abundance, density, and species composition. When performed correctly, electrofishing results in no permanent harm to fish, which return to their natural state a few minutes minutes after being stunned.

• Fish aggregating devices - are man-made objects used to attract pelagic fish such as marlin, tuna and mahi-mahi (dolphin fish). They usually consist of buoys or floats tethered to the ocean floor with concrete blocks.

• Dredging - There are types of dredges used for collecting scallops, oysters or sea cucumbers from the seabed. They have the form of a scoop made of chain mesh and they are towed by a fishing boat. Dredging can be destructive to the seabed, because the marine life is unable to survive the weight of the dredge. It is extremely detrimental to coral beds since they take centuries to rebuild themselves. Unmonitored dredging can be compared to unmonitored forest clearing, where it can wipe out ecosystems. Nowadays, this method of fishing is often replaced by mariculture or by scuba diving.

• Fish finders - are electronic sonar devices which indicate the presence of fish and fish schools. They are widely used by recreational fishermen. Commercially, they are used with other electronic locating and positioning devices.

• Fishing light attractors - use lights attached (above or underwater) to some structure to attract fish and bait fish. Fishing light attractor are operated every night. After a while, fish discover the increased concentration of bait surrounding the light. Once located, the fish return regularly, and can be harvested.

• Flossing -

• Harvesting machines - have recently been developed for commercial fishing. Harvesting machines use pumps to pump fish out of the sea. Dredges have also been mechanized so that they directly transfer mollusks to the surface as are dredged.

• Payaos - a type of fish aggregating device used in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. Payaos were traditionally bamboo rafts for handline fishing before World War II, but modern steel payaos use fish lights and fish location sonar to increase yields. While payaos fishing is sustainable on a small scale, the large scale, modern applications have been linked to adverse impacts on fish stocks.

• Shrimp baiting - is a method used by recreational fisherman for of catching shrimp. It uses a cast net, bait and long poles. The poles are used to mark a specific location and then bait is thrown in the water near the pole. After several minutes the cast net is thrown as close to the bait as possible and shrimp are caught in the net. In the 1980s the sport became popular in the south eastern coastal states of the USA.

Destructive techniques

Destructive fishing practices are practices that easily result in irreversible damage to aquatic habitats and ecosystems. Many fishing techniques can be destructive if used inappropriately, but some practices are particularly likely to result in irreversible damage. These practices are mostly, though not always, illegal. Where they are illegal, they are often inadequately enforced. Some examples are:

• Explosives - Dynamite or blast fishing, is done easily and cheaply with dynamite or homemade bombs made from locally available materials. Fish are killed by the shock from the blast and are then skimmed from the surface or collected from the bottom. The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or destroy the physical environment. Explosions are particularly harmful to coral reefs.^[27] Blast fishing is also illegal in many waterways around the world.

• Bottom trawling -

• Cyanide fishing - Cyanides are used to capture live fish near coral reefs for the aquarium and seafood market. 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. Many fish caught in this fashion die either immediately or in shipping. Those that survive often die from shock or from massive digestive damage. The high concentrations of cyanide on reefs harvested in this fashion damages the coral polyps and has also resulted in cases of cyanide poisoning among local fishermen and their families.

• Fish toxins -

• Muroami - is a destructive artisan fishing method employed on coral reefs in Southeast Asia. An encircling net is used with pounding devices, such as large stones fitted on ropes that are pounded onto the coral reefs. They can also consist of large heavy blocks of cement suspended above the sea by a crane fitted to the vessel. The pounding devices are repeatedly lowered into the area encircled by the net, smashing the coral into small fragments in order to scare the fish out of their coral refuges. The "crushing" effect on the coral heads has been described as having longlasting and practically totally destructive effects.^[28]

History

Ancient remains of spears, hooks and fishnet have been found in ruins of the Stone Age. The people of the early civilization drew pictures of nets and fishing lines in their arts (Parker 2002). Early hooks were made from the upper bills of eagles and from bones, shells, horns and plant thorns. Spears were tipped with the same materials, or sometimes with flints. Lines and nets were made from leaves, plant stalk and cocoon silk. Ancient fishing nets were rough in design and material but they were amazingly, as if some now use (Parker 2002). Literature on the indigenous fishing practices is very scanty. Baines (1992) documented traditional fisheries in the Solomon Island. Use of the herbal fish poisons in catching fishes from fresh water and sea documented from New Caledonia (Dahl 1985). John (1998) documented fishing techniques and overall life style of the Mukkuvar fishing Community of Kanyakumari district of Tamilnadu, India. Tribal people using various plants for medicinal and various purposes (Rai et al. 2000; Singh et al. 1997; Lin 2005) extends the use notion for herbal fish stupefying plants. Use of the fish poisons is very old practice in the history of human kind. In 1212 AD King Frederick II prohibited the use of certain plant piscicides, and by the fifteenth century similar laws had been decreed in other European countries as well (Wilhelm 1974). All over the globe, indigenous people use various fish poisons to kill the fishes, documented in America (Jeremy 2002) and among Tarahumara Indian (Gajdusek 1954).

Notes

1. ^ Keegan, William F (1986) The Optimal Foraging Analysis of Horticultural Production American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 88, No. 1., pp. 92-107.
2. ^ Szabo
3. ^ Szabo, Katherine Prehistoric Shellfish gathering.
4. ^ Snopes Urban Legend Website on Noodling
5. ^ Catelle, W. R. (1457). "Methods of Fishing". The Pearl: Its Story, Its Charm, and Its Value. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company. pp. 171. http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/catelle-the-pearl/page_171.
6. ^ Trout binning in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828, Project Gutenberg.
7. ^ Bennett, Oliver (2004-10-24). "HOW TO... Tickle a trout". The Independent. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041024/ai_n12762769. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
8. ^ Image of an eel spear.
9. ^ Spear fishing for eels.
10. ^ Guthrie, Dale Guthrie (2005) The Nature of Paleolithic Art. Page 298. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226311260
11. ^ Shore operated stationary lift nets
12. ^ Dunbar, Jeffery A (2001) Casting net NC Coastal fishing. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
13. ^ Fishing Tools - Landing Nets
14. ^ C. Boyd Pfeiffer (1999). Fly Fishing Saltwater Basics: Saltwater Basics. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0811727637.
15. ^ KiteLines Fall 1977 (Vol. 1 No. 3) Articles on Kite Fishing.
16. ^ Big Dropper Rigs
17. ^ http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/01/07/sports/doc4b45c19b28b5f523466569.txt
18. ^ [1] Article Legalities involved Fishing using Remote Control Boats
19. ^ Dam Fishing Fishing techniques of the Baka.
20. ^ Shooting and Fishing the Trent, ancient fish traps.
21. ^ The Text of Magna Carta, see paragraph 33.
22. ^ M.B. Santos, R. Fernández, A. López, J.A. Martínez and G.J. Pierce (2007), Variability in the diet of bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, in Galician waters, north-western Spain, 1990 – 2005 (.pdf), article retrieved April 3, 2007.
23. ^ The Telegraph (2006), Brazil's sexiest secret, article retrieved March 11, 2007.
24. ^ Dr. Moti Nissani (2007) Bottlenose Dolphins in Laguna Requesting a Throw Net (video). Supporting material for Dr. Nissani's presentation at the 2007 International Ethological Conference. Video retrieved February 13, 2008.
25. ^ Cormorant fishing: history and technique.
26. ^ De Orbe Novo, Volume 1, The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera, Project Gutenberg.
27. ^ Explosions In The Cretan Sea: The scourge of illegal fishing -- fishing with explosives.
28. ^ FAO: Destructive fishing practices

References

• FAO: Fishing gears and methods
• FAO: Fact Sheets: Fishing Technique
• FAO: Fact Sheets: Fishing Gear type

• FAO: (1964) Modern Fishing Gear Of The World 2 Fishing News Books. Resulting from the first FAO Fishing Gear Congress held in Hamburg in 1957. Download PDF (69MB)

• FAO: (1971) Modern Fishing Gear Of The World 3: Fish finding, purse seining and aimed trawling Fishing News Books. Editor Hilmar Kristjohsson. Download PDF (56MB)

Further reading

• Schultz, Ken (1999). Fishing Encyclopedia: Worldwide Angling Guide. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0028620577.

• Gabriel O, von Brandt A, Lange K, Dahm E and Wendt T (2005) Fish catching methods of the world Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780852382806.

• Galbraith R D and A Rice after E S Strange (2004) An Introduction to Commercial Fishing Gear and Methods Used in Scotland Scottish Fisheries Information Pamphlet No. 25.

• Waldman, John (2005) 100 Weird Ways to Catch Fish Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811731799

External links

• UN Atlas of the Oceans: Fish capture technology
• New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries: Fishing methods
• Fishing Techniques

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