Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering for consumption or display. The term fishing is also applied to pursuing other aquatic animals such as various types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, frogs, and some edible marine invertebrates.
Fishing is an ancient practice. Prehistoric people used their hands, clubs, spears, nets, and possibly hooks to catch fish. It was a major source of food worldwide and still is for many nations of the world.
Fishing has been transformed by modern technology. In addition to still providing food throughout the world, modern fishing has become both a popular recreation and professional sport.
The development of fishing as a sport or pastime is comparatively recent. The basic equipment of modern sport fishing consists of a barbed metal hook at the end of a line of nylon or Dacron used with a wooden, fiberglass or metal rod or pole that usually has some type of spool or reel near the handle around which the line is wound. Recreational fishing is practiced throughout the world in either fresh water or saltwater. The most popular game fish are salmon, trout, bass, and pike in freshwater and sailfish, tuna, marlin, tarpon, and bonefish in saltwater.
In the United States fishing is very regulated. Each state issues fishing licenses and sets regulations as to the season in which a certain species of fish may be caught, the minimum permissible size, and the number that may be taken per day.
The International Game Fish Association, which was founded 1939, standardizes the rules for saltwater fishing throughout the world. The largest ratified catch of any type on record is a 2,664-lb (1,208-kg) white shark caught in 1959 off the Australian coast.
Competitive fishing has also become popular. There are many annual tournaments both for catching fish and for accuracy and distance in casting. Records are kept for the largest catch in each species.
