is fishing a sport ?

probably been discussed before, but the subject of sports personality of the year and media coverage in generalhave been mentioned again on the Alan Scotthorne thread

For my bit, I would say an Angler is never going to be in the reconing for sports personality no matter how many times he wins a world champs - because angling is justnot a sport

It is the ways I do it Beecy - the fish get more than a sporting chance with me!

Tally Ho

"because angling is just not a sport"

You'll have a hard time justifying that statement against any written definition of the word 'sport' Beecy.

You should discuss your view with Allan Scotthorne for what should be an interesting answer.

Angling is one of the only true sports, along with hunting and shooting.

The rest are games!

It's a recreational pastime

A recreational pastime?

So is going to the pub or making model aeroplanes. But these hobbies are not in the same league as fishing, which I classify as a field sport, another form of hunting.

i couldnt think of my own definition but Ed's is about right

you cant realy compare it to anything else and put it in the same category, we catch a wild animal mainly just for the fun of it and to admire them, supppose the nearest i can think of off hand is butterfly collecting ! (ok we dont usualy kill and mount fish ), is butterfly collecting then a field sport Ron ?

To decide whether fishing is a sport you need first to define what your understanding of sport is.

In my mind a sport is essentially a game or competition where two or more people compete to decide a winner within a set of pre-determined rules.

By that definition fishing is sometimes a sport and sometimes a recreational pastime depending on the situation.

It’s a tricky one that paul, I more or less agree but if you take golf for example – a golf match against another player would definitely be classed as partaking in a sport, but are you involved in a sporting activity if you are playing a round on your own ( nearly put with yourself there ! )

The playing to fixed rules bit would put match fishing into the sports category, but it’s the draw bag that’s the difficult bit, not a level playing field

Mind you, you could argue that the toss in cricket is the same sort of thing?

also by the same definition almost any game, board, card even computer gamesetcis then a sport ?

Angling is hunting make no mistake. We go out to outwit a wild creature, just the same way a shooter kills a pheasant or a deer.

Sometimes we kill that wild creature just like I do when I clonk a trout on the head. Sometimes we return it to the water just like we do when we catch coarse fish, but make no mistake, we are hunters, or if we catch carp in the modern way, we are trappers.

yea but its a bit like horse racing or dog racing to how quic does that horse take to run a distance how long does it take to do a distance all done on time the same as fishing how long does it take to get that fish in how long does it take to get a fish to bite its all done on time

but when you think of it mostsport is done on time

but you may lagh

I have always questioned how Horse racing can be considered a sport.

We may induce a fish to feed on a trap we have laid and put a hook in a fish's lips-same as a bit in a horses mouth-but at least we dont dig spurs in toa fish'sflank or whipit to make it swim faster.

If angling is a blood sport then so every other pastime that utilises an animal or bird, so thats horse and dog racing, showjumping, pigeon racing, and falconary down the pan.

The catch 22 is that... Chess... is classed by some as a sport, on account of the highest earning "Sportsmen" are Chess players.

I suppose that 35 stone beer swilling Darts players are also Sportsmen / Women.

On a serious note, I dont class angling as a sport, it for me at least is a hobby / pastime, where I can escape from the pressures of work, and use my wits to catch the wiley finned fishes.

'Also by the same definition almost any game, board, card even computer gamesetcis then a sport ?'

Very true, it's a tricky thing to define.

Suprised no one's resorted to this yet but a bit of plagiarism never hurt anyone...

Sport

noun

1.an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

2.a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.

3.diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.

4.jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry: What he said in sport was taken seriously.

5.mockery; ridicule; derision: They made sport of him.

6.an object of derision; laughingstock.

7.something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.

8.something or someone subject to the whims or vicissitudes of fate, circumstances, etc.

9.a sportsman.

10.Informal. a person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person: He was a sport and took his defeat well.

11.Informal. a person who is interested in sports as an occasion for gambling; gambler.

12.Informal. a flashy person; one who wears showy clothes, affects smart manners, pursues pleasurable pastimes, or the like; a bon vivant.

13.Biology. an organism or part that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; mutation.

14.Obsolete. amorous dalliance.

–adjective

15.of, pertaining to, or used in sports or a particular sport.

16.suitable for outdoor or informal wear: sport clothes.

–verb (used without object)

17.to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation.

18.to play, frolic, or gambol, as a child or an animal.

19.to engage in some open-air or athletic pastime or sport.

20.to trifle or treat lightly: to sport with another's emotions.

21.to mock, scoff, or tease: to sport at suburban life.

22.Botany. to mutate.

–verb (used with object)

23.to pass (time) in amusement or sport.

24.to spend or squander lightly or recklessly (often fol. by away).

25.Informal. to wear, display, carry, etc., esp. with ostentation; show off: to sport a new mink coat.

26.Archaic. to amuse (esp. oneself).

And certainly angling can be classed in some of its disciplines as a blood sport. Any sport that involves killing is a blood sport and angling is certainly that.

Trout and salmon fishing is a blood sport. Or does one class it as game fishing, what ho old bean?

Coarse fishing is a sport. Unless practiced by certain people useing bungee rigs, and then it is hunting.

I thought that fishing was always known as the largest participating SPORT in the world? i didnt know anyone who considerd it not to be a sport. I consider a sport to be an activity done for the pleasure of doing it that is encompased in some sort of aranged and recognised structure with rules. i would only consider fishing as hunting if i were to kill fish for the sole intention of eating them.

A Sport!! It's more like a physical and mental endurance test for me these days.

I have never allied myself to the hunters (shooters) or the C.A. but I know that some anglers do. Neither do I feel I have much in common with those who fish artificially maintained stillwater 'fisheries' for the pleasure of filling a keepnet.

Heard on BBC Five Live (so it must be true) that swimming is the largest participantsport in the UK; claiming to have over 7 million participants. Not sure whether that includes all the grannies and grandads who dip a toe into the waters at Blackpooland Brighton

Rugby League is a sport, anything else is just an excuse, unless its lady's mud wrestling.

yes.....................its a sport,its the only sport Ive ever been able to do with my ticker trouble so leave it out ,leave it alone ..............................or I will cry

Sport is defined in the OED as "a game or competitive activity, especially an outdoor one" so in the true sense of the wordangling is a sport. Whether the BBC regard it as a sport is a totally different matter and who the hell cares what a load of old fogies think anyway, participants do it for the sheer enjoyment of it and sometimes the competitiveness not to become a household name,that just will nothappen.