I've got friends who would rather see a caught fish killed instead of released. They figure you've already inflicted pain, why not kill it instead of just inflicting pain for pains sake and release. It won't stop me by any means.

No. Fish are either bait or food.EOS.

The world is a tough place, it's just the way it is, we didn't create it, we just share it...and we can not change the tree of life no matter how enlightened some people feel they have become...I would never harm an animal just to inflict pain, but I love to fish, and love to hunt, and accept the results of my actions....a fish feels no more pain from my hook than when it is eaten by another bigger fish, and a deer dies no more painfully from my bullet than the teeth of a predator...people are not immune from the tree of life, but are part of it....and some of us prefer the role of predator over that of prey...

Fish eat their own young, alive! I don't think a little prick in the lip is going to scar them.

As for giving up my fly rod..."from my cold dead hands!"

Of course I care, a little. But that won't stop me from fishing. Most fish eat other fish--fins, bones & all. My hook can't hurt much more than that.

Being swallowed and digested alive by a fish has to be the most morbid way to go. I am sure any fish, or any other creature, feasting on a human isn't too concerned about the pain it causes the human or its family and friends. Humans are the only creatures that think and care about the pain inflicted on other creatures. Is that one of the things that sets us "above" other life? Won't get philosophical about it. I'll just keep on fishing. Won't stop trapping mice or rats, or swatting flies and mosquitoes, either. No, I don't eat everything I kill.

They are slaughtering what is left of the wolf population in Montana, Idaho and Alaska and these ultra left wing nuts are worried if a fish can feel pain. I don't know who are more misguided: the far right wing or the ultra left wing. Its a toss up.

"Do You Care If Fish Feel Pain?"

Heck No.

Does a fish care if the fish it eats feels pain? If not, why should I?

isnt that what the butters for?LOL.

Who, exactly is slaughtering "what's left" of the wolf population? The only reason there is a hunting season is because the population needs to be checked. They are not wiping anything out.

Have we lost our minds as a society when this subject is a point of controversy? There are people who also believe that flowers and vegetables feel pain. Insanity reigns.

Hey Ruckweiler,
Haven't you ever heard the horrible screaming when you drop vegetables in boiling water? It's the most spine chilling sound on earth. Eating vegetables is inhumane. I just can't stand to see them suffer. In the name of all that is good and holy, eat meat. Save the vegetables.

seadog - you might want to look into PETP ... that's pronounced pet-pee ... People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants. Just because humans can't hear them doesn't mean plants aren't screaming when we cut them off at their roots and eat them alive. They are probably just communicating at a yet to be discovered vibration level. Fruits and seeds are wombs and living offspring. Just think about that when taking a bite out an apple or peeling back a banana.

Geez ... if people join both PETA and PETP we won't have to deal with them much longer. If they consider insects as animals then all that is left is honey, and that is stealing from the bees. Of course, they might prefer soylent green.

I definitely wouldn't stop fishing over it. lol

Hey MLH, that sounds like a plan. All we need is the PETA mailing list and some PETP membership applications. I'll get the neighborhood kids to stuff envelopes. Anyone want to chip in for postage?

Good points, Deeter! Thanks. Certainly, the subject touched an, uh, nerve. My perspective is one of consistency: say as you do. To have a legitimate argument, every PETA person must be a vegan, doesn't ever partake of milk or cheese, and probably wouldn't eat anything from a field in which the farmer had used pesticides. Right? Or don't bugs feel? How about cow udders--no nerves, right? I'm okay with fishing because I don't think of myself as a hypocrite. I love meat. In fact...hold on. Let me take a bite of my breakfast burrito. Yum! That chicken has just the right heat. It's not free-range chicken, I'm sure. And my bird prabably lived in a shoebox-size cage, surrounded by other birds, in a giant room packed with cages. Good thing chickens are so stupid--after all, they don't even need a brain to run around after they've lost theirs. Yum! Good burrito!!

the way i look at is this; people, whether we like it or not, are a part of nature, neither above nor below it, therefor our physical actions constitute a natural process and nature has no concept of ethics, ethics is a mental condition created in the minds of men to determine what is for the betterment of mankind. This doesnt necessarily imply that we can act with out any notion of ethics because we have to realize that the ethics of our decisions is simply a way to determine whether the physical reality of a decision will have a positive impact on our surroundings, i.e. if we were to overfish a species to extinction then we lose the ability to further fish for that species which most who enjoy fishing for that species would conclude is a negative outcome thus unethical, either way nature doesnt care and will go on as it always has, only man truly cares for the loss. with this in mind hanging up the rod and reel because it causes fish pain is the unethical option as it deprives us of a source of enjoyment and thus loss for man, nature will continue on either way

I agree with Idahooutdoors:In the shared world, man is
the top predator in food chain,hunting and fishing gentle
is maybe the only thing All We can do, using personnal ethics in conservation and unharmed releases when fishing or clean death as a hunting ethic code.

At my age (68) pain can be a good thing, it lets me know I am STILL ALIVE! Same for fish .

This is not ultra left wing nuts, its just a study. No one is trying to stop you from fishing, but it is an interesting question. If you take a few days to dwell on it, nurture what Izaak Walton calls the contemplative half of angling, you will be a better fisherman and conservationist for it.

I do care. It bothers me a bit, but not enough to make me want to stop fishing. I do practice catch and release. I rationalize that the fish, if they could make an informed choice, would prefer to be caught and be scared or feel a bit of pain and then be released by an angler to being caught and killed by an animal predator and eaten.