HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Bayslammer]

Are serious wadefishing trophy trout hunters considered athletes? I love to play golf, but am not good at it. I tried football, baseball ect. as a child and was average at best. There is much to learn about the sport of fishing and some are naturally gifted just as all other athletes. I have been humbled by great fisherman whom I have fished along side. You can try to imitate what they are doing using the same lures but as in any sport, some are better than others. Finding fish and catching them brings joy to most "meat hunters". True trophy trout seekers will grind a small area out from dusk till dawn to catch the all elusive trophy if thier senses tell them to do so. Many of them will release these fish and avoid cleaning tables and braggers. I would like to see more guides offer the catch and release trips and teach anglers the sport of wadefishing for trout. With digital cameras and replica mounts fisherman can release more trophy trout these days. Teaching anglers on the water sighns and lure fishing skills and just soaking up the beauty would be rewarding for most. I think true sportsmen would find this far more rewarding than soaking croakers to fill ziplocks with fillets.
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J.D

[Torpedo]

According to Wikipedia:

A sport consists of a physical and mentally competitive activity carried out with a recreational purpose for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, self-motivation and a scoring system. The difference of purpose is what characterises sport, combined with the notion of individual (or team) skill or prowess.

Of the hundreds of different sports listed:

Sport fishing is a form of recreational fishing where the primary reward is the challenge of finding and catching the fish rather than the culinary or financial value of the fish's flesh. The distincion is not completely rigid - in many cases, sport fishers will also eat their catch. The philosophies and tactics used for sport fishing, however, are usually sufficiently different from "food fishing" to make the distinction clear enough.

Sport fishing methods vary according to the area being fished, the species being targeted, the personal strategies of the angler, and the resources available, ranging from the aristocratic art of fly fishing, ostensibly invented in Great Britain, to the high-tech, incredibly expensive methods used to chase marlin and tuna. In virtually every case, however, the fishing is done with hook, rod and reel rather than with nets or other aids.

In the past, sport fishers, even if they did not eat their catch, almost always killed them to bring them to shore to be weighed or for preservation as trophies. External pressure from conservationists, combined with a genuine concern about fish stocks, have caused many sport fishers to begin releasing their catch alive, sometimes after fitting them with identifying tags and recording their details so as to aid fisheries research (known as tag and release).

Sport fishing competitions give competitors (individuals if the fishing occurs from land, usually teams where conducted from boats) a specified time and area from which they are to catch fish. Scores are awarded for each fish caught, the points depending on the fish's weight and species, and then, sometimes, divided by the strength of the fishing line used (so catching fish on thinner, weaker line scores additional points). In tag and release competitions, a flat score per fish, divided by the line strength, is awarded for each species caught.

[SurfRanger95]

I LOVE FISHING! However you classify it . . .RLTW!!!
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"I don't wanna live on that kind of island, no I don't wanna swim in a roped off sea. It's too much for me, too much for me; I gotta be where the wind and the water are free." -- Jimmy Buffet

"GUINESS IS GOOD FOR YOU!"

[Big John]

It is definitely a sport! Anyone who has ever fished can call it a sort of fishing, because its name is fishing and not catching! I have went home with an empty cooler way too many times for it not to be a sport! If I had to feed my family by fishing we'd have starved long ago!

If you wanna go one further, you can join the SFCCI, and cast on an empty field with no fish for miles! Just people trying to outcast eachother!
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Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke and hungry the rest of his life!

John Sullivan
Native Corpus Christian
Currently Displaced in San Antonio

[SurfRanger95]

No doubt it is a sport -- ask anyone who has had a 20lb jack crevelle nail a topwater on 12 lb test line. I have played football, rugby and thrown the shot put but never had my arms smoked like that before. Better yet, take on a 50+ pound yellowfin on one of those head boat issued rods if ya wanna feel the burn (while keeping your balance in rough water)!

All I can say is OH HELL YEAH
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"I don't wanna live on that kind of island, no I don't wanna swim in a roped off sea. It's too much for me, too much for me; I gotta be where the wind and the water are free." -- Jimmy Buffet

"GUINESS IS GOOD FOR YOU!"

[Oz]

F'n A its a Sport.. just wait until the introduce it into the Summer Olympics.. oh just you wait!!!
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- Oz

eXtreme coast international

[Dexter]

I love it! It's always been a sport.

[Bluffer]

I catch to eat. Enjoy landing the larger ones but prefer the lower end of the slot size to eat. If I keep it, I eat it!
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Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-