Do fish feel pain? it must be sore with the hooks in there mouth andgetting pulled by it. What do you think?
Cheers
Ali

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What a tourist terms a plague of insects, the fly fisher calls a great hatch.

if your worried about this i would give up fishing !!!!

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

Put a ring through a Bulls nose and it will follow you like a Lamb, cos it probably hurts.
Hook a Trout and it pulls like hell against the hook, I don't think it hurts at all, but this can of worms you have now reopened.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

If you had a hook stuck in your mouth and someone pulling on it, I bet you would go with it and sure as hell wouldn't pull against it. If fish felt pain in the same way we feel pain I don't think playing them would be much fun,as it would all be over very quick. I wouldn't say they don't feel pain but they don't seem to feel it to the same extent we do.
Tight Lines
Trout Hunter

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Trout,great to hunt,greater to release.

Bruce, I dont think i'll be giving up fishing! And im not worried, i was just wondering.

Im sorry if this subject has already been raised didnt know.

Thanks for the replies anyway.
tightlines
Ali

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What a tourist terms a plague of insects, the fly fisher calls a great hatch.

Don't even fret about it Fish8

When you stub your toe it hurts like hell for awhile. But once it's subsided you only knew that it hurt. You can't still feel the pain any more.
You're more cautious not to do it in future. Some fish probably have such a memory as no matter what you try and tempt them with they won't bite. On the other hand if they do bite it either didn't hurt enough the first time or didn't hurt at all or there just too stupid to know what pain is.

If it's going to get tapped on the head all of the above is irrelevant.

just my 2p


CT

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Rob

Honi soit qui mal y pense

This should be good; cat in with the Pigeons!

In for a penny - My opinion is : Fish are a cold blooded species, and there-for, do-not feel pain in the same way as warm blooded animals!

Bet they think, when hooked; why is this bloody fly fighting back?

If it worried me, I'd stop angling!

Ah, the endless debate.....

The question is misleading though - "Do fish feel pain?" yes of course they can/do..... but what you really mean is "Do they feel pain when hooked in the mouth?". Personally I am convinced they don't - same reasons as Dick Walker once said - pulling away when hooked, also I have seen fish take a bait in clear water and not even realise they have been hooked til I've struck. Obviously its a bit different with tackle-shy fish which have been caught before as they recognise the feel of a hook (not pain, just its presence) and generally bolt, because they know its a trap. Given that the mouth of a fish has to crunch all sorts of hard objects - snails etc - my understanding is they don't have pain receptors there in the same sense as they will have elsewhere in their body - hence my first comment meaning yes the can feel pain, but probably not in the mouth.

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The conventional wisdom is that a fish has little by way of a neo-cortex and has a tiny brain so is unable to reason, and therefore pain is a different concept when applied to a fish. It instead relies on conditioned reflexes. If you spook a trout, I'm sure that it does not experience fear like we do but is conditioned to sense and react to danger. In the same way, I don't believe that it expereinces pain as we understand it. As far as game fishing goes, either you eat the fish which is fair enough under the right circumstances, or you carefully return it usually none the worse for its experience. My conscience is clear.

Let me answer this once and for all. on my water when feeding is limited and fish are hard on the bottom after snails, they will rake the bottom completely grinding their noses off all the way back to the start of the mouth on the sharp gravel bottom, its horrendous looking but does heal in time, i find it amazing that anything feeling pain would do this. so to be blunt no they do not feel pain.

And this subject should be not be posted again.....

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I HATE BUNGS.........