Trends and Competitions in Sport Fishing

Sport fishing or recreational fishing is fishing for pleasure or competition and different from commercial fishing and subsistence fishing. While commercial fishing is for profit, subsistence fishing is for survival. The act of catching fish is known as angling and it is sometime expected that the fish you catch be released in the water. Although women are known to participate in sport fishing, it is dominated by men. Charley Soares is a well known angler and a writer on issues related to fishing. The methods used depend largely upon the area fished, the targeted species, personal preferences of the angler and available resources.

Sport fishing is normally with hook, line, rod and reel instead of nets and other resources. Sport fishing methods range from the aristocratic art of fly fishing to technical methods used to chase marlin and tuna. The most common fish that provide support to an angler are marlin, tarpon, sailfish, tuna and mackerel. Earlier recreational fishers usually killed the fish they caught even if they did not eat their catch. They would bring them to shore for weighing or preserving them as trophies. Apart from catching fish for food, anglers like Charley Soares keep a log of fish caught and submit trophy-sized fish to record keeping agencies.

There has been a change in sport fishing trends. Due to the danger posed to recreational fisheries by excessive and unauthorized fishing, sport fishermen now prefer to ‘catch and release’ fish back into the water. Another development in sport fishing has been that of ‘tag and release.’ Concerned recreational fishermen fit the released fish with identity tags and record vital statistics and send them to government agencies. A new innovation involves competitions among anglers. The competition, evolved from local competitions in North America, is usually based on the total weight of fish of a specific species caught within a predetermined time.

Sport fishing competitions are held on individual and team basis. Individual competitions involve fishing from land while team competitions are conducted from boats. In any sport fishing competition the area of fishing and the species is preset. Points awarded depend upon the total weight. The score may then be divided by the strength of the fishing line used, which gives more points to the competitor using a thinner line. If the competition is based on catch/tag and release basis the number of fish caught is divided by the line strength to arrive at the score. The famous writer/angler, Charley Soares is known to hold recreational fishing competitions.

Recreational fishing has its own conventions and is governed by regulations and licensing restrictions. The guidelines are voluntary but made and controlled by the International Game Fish Association. These mostly relate to restriction on the use of nets and types of hooks, baits and angling lures allowed. Licensing regimes and conservational restrictions are integral to sport fishing.