Fish feeling pain....

An interesting one this....

Over the course of the weekends fishing in Killybegs, on numerous occasions I witnessed fish caught on 2 hooks, both on a single trace and on a neighbours also. Managed to see 2 fish caught also with hooks in place after being lost initially to the reef. These fish had been caught only a matter of minutes beforehand and seconds I suppose in the cases of them swallowing 2 hooks at once. If it was causing undue pain and suffering, surely to god it would have put them off their grub? Seen doggies in particular caught at a local beach with the remains of hooks in their mouths, fit and well and hungry. On a recent trip to Kerry, several of us provided Dingle Aquarium with 4 bass which were alive and well and unbothered by their experience later that weekend.

It shows that fish when properly handled seem not only to be able to survive the whole catch and release episode but that they arent unduly bothered by it either. I was told recently of a boat competition being won by a fella who managed to catch the same Conger 3 times in a row on one session on a particular mark (foolish conger granted..... :D ), recognisable as it had the remains of a trace protruding. Something to think about I suppose.....

I saw something similar on a John Wilson programme a few days ago. He was fishing with Chris Tarrant (interesting times on that boat :D). Can't remember what they were fishing for (some sort of Jack?) but they both caught the same fish at the same time.

I'm not sure about whether you can infer anything about pain from this. I'm not an animal psychologist, but I guess for fish, and many other animals, feeding is a survival instinct and pain is possibly "deprioritised" as a result.

It is an interesting one. Many prey fish species have spines, spiny fins and such, and crustaceans have claws, sharp rostra, etc. You could imagine that predators are tolerant of a certain amount if it means a decent meal. I can't imagine a hook being any worse than being pricked by a fish spine. From experience of bass spines, etc. and hooks, I can vouch for this. (although I'm not comparing myself to a fish!)

It's impossible to know for sure, and animal rights activists usually use the pain argument as ammunition, but most anglers instinctively feel that pain really isn't an issue. Stories such as mentioned above seem to support this.

Some facts worth reading on this site....

http://www.fishscam.com/faqPain.cfm

Tom.

the rose work is quite interesting i think, and i agree with it myself

eoin and i have caught the same pike twice in one session on two separate ocassions. once on consecutive casts. have also snapped in fish and caught them again later twice, there was a pike with a big scar on its tail that i caught five times over 3 years on my local canal and last year my dad and eoin caught the same trout of around 4lbs three months aprt in the same swim.

cant be that excrutitting if the above is as common as it has been for me

Well Adam.
Seems to be fairly common with pike at least. Last time I was out I got the same jack 3 times in 45 Min's.( Stupid jack :!: :roll: )
I cant see how he would take the same bait 3 times in such a short time if he was in any pain. :?: