Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival and livelihood.
Recreational fishing at sunset
Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, published in 1653 helped popularize fly fishing as a sport. Woodcut by Louis Rhead
Trading card of the Ustonson company, an early firm specializing in fishing equipment, and holder of a Royal Warrant from the 1760s.
The Fly-fisher's Entomology by Alfred Ronalds had a great influence on the development of fly fishing when it was first published in 1836.
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques include hand-gathering, spearing, netting, angling, shooting and trapping, as well as more destructive and often illegal techniques such as electrocution, blasting and poisoning.
Stilts fishermen, Sri Lanka
Fishing with nets, Mexico
Fishing tools from the Mesolithic and Neolithic period
Painting of A Brixham trawler by William Adolphus Knell. The painting is now in the National Maritime Museum.
