Fishing techniques

The fisherman – by Charles Napier Hemy, 1888

Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.

Fishing techniques include hand gathering, spearfishing, netting, angling and trapping. Recreational, commercial and artisanal 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, foraging and habitat. 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.[2]

Fishing techniques can be contrasted with fishing tackle. Fishing tackle refers to the physical equipment that is used when fishing, whereas fishing techniques refers to the manner in which the tackle is used when fishing.

Hand fishing

It is possible to fish and gather many sea foods with minimal equipment by using the hands. Gathering seafood by hand can be as easy as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs. The earliest evidence for shellfish gathering dates back to a 300,000-year-old site in France called Terra Amata. This is a hominid site as modern Homo sapiens did not appear until around 50,000 years ago.[3][4]

Ama diver in Japan

Spearfishing

Main article: Spearfishing

Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialised variant such as a harpoon, trident, arrow or eel spear.[9][10] Some fishing spears use slings (or rubber loops) to propel the spear.

A Hupa man with his spear

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 Province, Vietnam

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 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.

Slab
External images
Pelagic longline
Dropline
Trotline for catfish

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.

Other angling

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.

Animals

Chinese man with fishing cormorant.

Other techniques

Scientists carrying out a population and species survey using electrofishing equipment
Christ catches fish using a miracle technique

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:

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 Islands. 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 Tamil Nadu, 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, King Frederick II prohibited the use of certain plant piscicides, and by the 15th 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. F.T.D. Website (2013) Fishing Tips and Techniques - Retrieved on 2013-24-07
  3. Szabo
  4. Szabo, Katherine Prehistoric Shellfish gathering.
  5. Snopes Urban Legend Website on Noodling
  6. Catelle, W. R. (1457). "Methods of Fishing". The Pearl: Its Story, Its Charm, and Its Value. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company. p. 171.
  7. Trout binning in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828, Project Gutenberg.
  8. "Trout Tickling: Catching a Fish with Bare Hands". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  9. Image of an eel spear.
  10. Spear fishing for eels.
  11. Guthrie, Dale Guthrie (2005) The Nature of Paleolithic Art. Page 298. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-31126-0
  12. Shore operated stationary lift nets
  13. Dunbar, Jeffery A (2001) Casting net NC Coastal fishing. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
  14. Fishing Tools - Landing Nets
  15. Selective Fishing Methods Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  16. C. Boyd Pfeiffer (1999). Fly Fishing Saltwater Basics: Saltwater Basics. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-2763-7.
  17. KiteLines Fall 1977 (Vol. 1 No. 3) Articles on Kite Fishing.
  18. Big Dropper Rigs
  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

Further reading

External links

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