What makes fishing as a hobby so appealing that people will fish all hours of the day and in nasty weather?
I saw some people fishing the other day in 16 degree Fahrenheit (-9 Celsius) weather at 4:30AM. They were not ice fishing with a little hut, but standing at the base of a bridge with no shelter or campfire. People are at that bridge fishing regularly when it is cold but that was the coldest temp I have seen so far. Why is it so appealing to them?
Haha, agreed. I used to love "going fishing" with my grandparents until I actually caught a fish, then I just felt terrible. I used to have nightmares where there would be fish hooks in my food.
Now "going fishing" to me just means hanging out by the water and being peacefully bored while other people enjoy the things they enjoy.
I don't like the idea of fishing if im not gonna eat the fish, even catch and release, like what's the point of traumatizing and skewering a fishs mouth just to throw it back. It registers like hunting to me, im not gonna do it if im not gonna eat it.
I can't find any sources to back up that claim, do you? The highest estimate I found was from Wikipedia
A metastudy in 2005 found that the average catch and release mortality rate was 18%, but varied greatly by species.[17] During an Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation study, up to 43 percent of fish released after being caught died within six days as a result of inadequate holding and weigh in procedures during tournaments.[18] More recent studies reported in Montana estimate that approximately 20% of released trout die from injuries or stress and for those that do not die, their injuries may significantly reduce their ability to feed and grow.[19]
This varies wildly depending on what species and how it was caught. Fish with really thin lips like largemouth are generally perfectly fine after being released.