I am a conservation minded person, as I am sure most of us are. I care for each fish and try to release them quickly and safely. Every once in a while I run into an individual that thinks I am a cruel, heartless person for fishing, even if it is catch and release. They may say things like how would you like a hook in your cheek, ripped from your home and thrown back into it. I try to explain fish do not have a complex nerve network and a brain that is complex like us. I have even explained some people have caught the same fish just a day later with no harm shown to the fish. No matter what you say, they think you are a horrible person. 

I wonder what they think of hunters?

Have you ever run into this? How do you handle that situation? Thanks.

Yeah ,comes from the same people who eat steaks, fried chicken and fish tacos. If they don’t see how the sausage is made it’s fine.

Their hypocrisy is cringe worthy and I remind them of it. 

"No hablo english, Lady"

I just don't engage.  Those people are entrenched in their misguided beliefs and are only focused on forcing people to change to their ways.  They'll never listen to reason.  So I just ignore them, or at most, say "Oh, so you hate me?  I'm ok with that." and walk away, leaving them speechless.

 

Like I always say, you're welcome to believe whatever you want.  However you can't force your beliefs on others.

Yes. I pay no heed to foolish people. Anyone giving me an opinion that I didn't ask for is considered, by me, to be a fool. So I politely walk away. 

Perhaps find different friends. 

You got people saying you're a bad person because you fish.  You got people who say you're a bad person if you don't practice catch and release.  You got people who say you're a bad person if you use live bait. 

 

It's impossible to please everyone so why try?  I just try to respect everyone's opinions and I'll discuss it with them if they're reasonable.

14 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Those people are entrenched in their misguided beliefs and are only focused on forcing people to change to their ways.

 

I learned this the hard way the past 5 years or so.

 

I am finished trying to change people's minds no matter how much data is presented.

I don't care what some random stranger thinks about what I'm doing.  And that goes for everything not just fishing.  

I find it best to just play deaf, and not engage. 

If that is happening often, you might check with law enforcement.  In lots of places it is illegal to harass a fisherman or hunter.

Tell this person your grandfather lived to the ripe age of 100. When they ask if you attribute that to fishing say "No, I attribute that to him minding his own business." Even vegans have negative impacts on the environment and wildlife. No one treads upon this earth without leaving a trace.

Whether it’s fish,deer,turkeys or any other game I always respond to them the same. I love all of Gods creatures especially with mash potatoes and gravy. That way you can live rent free in their heads.

2 hours ago, rboat said:

Have you ever run into this? How do you handle that situation?

 

I encountered it once and it startled me. I was working with troubled boys and after work, when the other teachers went home, I took the boys fishing. I was doing a good thing, but my colleague disagreed. So, I asked her how she enjoyed her afternoons and evenings and she said, she canoed. When I asked her how her canoe reached water, she said by car. 

 

"Ah, so have you noticed all the animals that you've smashed on your grill and windshield in your pursuit of pleasure?"

 

It's this:

 

3 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

No one treads upon this earth without leaving a trace.

 

Heck, you can't build a car or house without killing countless living things. Look at the machines that mine ore. So much life lived between the machine and the ore.

I agree, just walk away from those type of people. Most normal people even if they had that opinion would keep it to themselves. 

 

My wife hooked a fish in the eye the first time she came out with me. That was it for her. There's always going to be casualties but we've all seen fish swimming around ripped up far worse by propeller strikes and pike bites.

If they interrupt my singing while fishing with that ignorance. I'd just whip my phone out and show them my hunting success pics. Honestly we don't get that mess down here.

I live in a small Midwest town so there thankfully isn't much of that around here, most people around me hunt and fish or at least support the rights to do it...although with the way the world is going its a matter of time until those people and\or that mindset makes its way here. Been around a few vegans and vegetarians in my life but only remember one of them being preachy. She kinda got testy with me for eating meat, after listening to her BS for far too long I pointed down at her feet and said nice leather boots dumb@#$...that was the end of the conversation.

Fishing and hunting help me to connect to the universe and it’s ever reaching pulse of cosmic energy and this makes me more spiritual and in tune with nature. So I got that going for me.

When I'm doing my thing, those folks are generally somewhere else. 

#fortunate

A-Jay

People who criticize fisherman as being cruel, should never eat chicken, pork or beef again. They're out of touch with reality. Ignore them.

People that behave this way (being hypercritical of others) usually do so as a way to feel better about their own insecurity / self esteem issues. IMHO best way to deal with it is to let them know you don't approve of their behavior...but I also try to avoid being hypercritical of them and be open to the possibility that they might eventually try to improve. For example if someone was normally happy and didn't do this sort of thing but then they lost their job and got divorced that could potentially cause this type of thing to happen and in a situation like that the best case scenario would be that you rebuke them a bit (but don't be overly harsh about it) and then they eventually reflect on it and realize they want to improve.

 

Nobody's perfect and that can and does happen with a lot of people. So letting them know you don't approve of their behavior would be a good way to handle it, but permanently judging them or calling them a worthless idiot might also be a bit hypercritical on your part and could just make the situation worse. On the other hand I also said 'might' in that last bit and the reason for that is sadly there are some people out there that are so far gone that they will never be open to the idea that there might be any sort of room for improvement with themselves and will just continue to go through life trying to put other people down to make themselves feel better and those are the ones that you probably want to just eventually ignore and / or avoid all together.

 

Aside from that if you are fishing with a license and not breaking any laws or rules then you aren't doing anything wrong and them trying to give you an unsolicited lecture in ethics is a classic example of what I would consider to be hypercritical behavior. 

I've never once had this happen to me. I also spend my fishing time in the South and Midwest where it's a super common practice. 

 

However, I'm going to steel man the anti-fishing argument for a second because I think it's worth getting into their headspace. Putting a hook into a fish's mouth and pulling them out of the water absolutely causes some level of suffering. I'm therefore building my pleasure out of some level of fish suffering. Some amount of catch and release fishing results in death. I am sometimes killing fish for my entertainment. I conceded all of those points. 

 

However my license fees and taxes on purchasing supplies directly goes to conservation funding. This results in preservation of natural habitat and pays for state run fish hatcheries. This results in healthier, happier, and more plentiful fish. It also has a positive impact up and down the food web.

 

Putting an economic value on conserved land via a paid hobby is also huge when it comes to political decision making for land conservation. The fishing industry (Johnny Morris was a major player) just stepped up recently to stop the sell of federally protected land. This has generational consequences for humans and our biosphere.

 

I am absolutely bringing more net positive benefits to the environment than I am extracting by fishing. More creatures live healthier and happier lives, because I choose a hobby that causes suffering to some amount of them. It might make some people uncomfortable who aren't systems thinkers, but they should take a broader view.

The number of people on this planet whose opinion of me is something that I care about is a single digit number. None of them have a problem with me fishing. 😉 

22 hours ago, rboat said:

Have you ever run into this?

Yes.

22 hours ago, rboat said:

How do you handle that situation?

I tell them that I've made peace with the fact that I'm a hairless primate apex predator who gets his jollies hunting things, and that they would too if they got a taste, or if they were forced to by necessity. It's in the wiring for them as well whether they know it or not. Visualizing or trying to visualize what I just said usually shuts them up. At the very least they realize that they've chosen to argue with someone who knows how to argue, so they just give up.

19 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Heck, you can't build a car or house without killing countless living things. Look at the machines that mine ore. So much life lived between the machine and the ore.

Think about all of the death caused by even organic crop farming. Feilds need to be cleared of everything but soil and tilled. Even vegetarians aren't sinless.

I politely listen to what they have to say, especially since some of them are friends and family.  I then tell them I don't think I am a cruel person because I enjoy fishing and I don't plan on stopping.  I don't get sucked in to an argument that is not going to change any one's mind including mine.  In all honesty I can't explain why I like fishing so much.  I know I don't do it to torture the fish. I like the challenge of finding, hooking, landing, and sometimes eating the fish.  I have always liked to fish, and always will.  I know natives in Alaska that don't like sport fisherman.  One of their  favorite saying is they don't play with their food.  My answer back was always, I do so now we know what are differences are.

 

Some things in life can't be explained.  My brother never liked to fish or hunt.  He liked to eat what my dad and I harvested, but he had zero interest in catching it.  He has always wondered why I let my fish go.  He understands the obvious reason of I don't want to harm the resource, but he doesn't understand why I bother fishing if I don't eat the fish.  He always says I could just stay home and let the resource manage itself if I'm just going to let them go anyway.

 

One time when I was young my mom was driving us to our farm.  We were on a gravel road, and it was a couple weeks before the pheasant season opened.  We came around a corner and there were a couple of pheasants running across the road.  My Dad yelled and tried to ge my mom two swerve and miss the birds.  She of course didn't want to put the car in to the ditch trying to avoid the pheasants with the whole family in the car.  She made a slight safe effort to miss the birds and only ended up hitting one of them.  My Dad was furious.  He expected her to perform a sliding skid that would make a hollywood stunt driver envious.  He was not happy and neither was she.  He told her she should have made a more aggressive effort to miss the pheasants and she told him he was crazy.  She brought up the fact that in just two short weeks he was going to shoot the very same birds he wanted her to risk the life of the whole family to keep from harming the verys same birds he hoped to harm.

 

Both my Dad and I thought that was perfect logic that Mom should understand.   We wanted them to at least make it until opening day.  It made perfect sense to my Dad and I, but sounded completely crazy to my Mom and brother.  My sister just thought it would have been more fun if Dad had been driving.    

 

It was at that moment I realized that if you have hunting and fishing in your blood you simply will have a need to hunt and fish, and it will not make sense to those that do not have it deep in their souls.  I can't explain it and neither can they.  I don't like watching baseball and my brother does.  It is as simple as that. 

 

No need to argue with anyone.  I respect their different opinions and If they don't respect mine than we can talk about the weather. 

 

I fish, therefore I am.