Ok. I must admitt, when I stick a fish, and pop that hook out of’em, I do feel bad. They just gotta feel pain! For example.
First BFL of the year, I was prefishing, and I was catching a few fish. One of them had a clear sore spot on the roof of his mouth where he’d been stuck by other anglers.
Now, I stuck’im in the same hole. He had to feel that.
You guys ever wonder about the pain the fish may feel? Man, some times I simply feel sorry for’em.
What do you guys think?
Thanks,
OnTheWater
OTW, Have you been into the fermented fruit on the plain? Or are you just stirring the pot here, PETA style? LMAO 
When I worked at the fisheries research center, this came up and was part of our training. I think it all comes down to how you define pain. Do fish have a reaction in the nerves and brain in response to injury? Of course. If you define pain as feeling injury, yes they do feel pain. Then again, so do almost all living creatures I imagine.
Do fish feel the emotion we call pain? Much more difficult to judge and tell. Fish are primative creatures with a small brain in relation to body size. Do they really have emotions at all, or do they just respond to stimuli? There are some studies that have been done that we read (or were supposed to!) at the lab which concluded that fish lack the brain to form complex emotional “fear” that mammels do in response to pain. They basically just live to live and rely on instinct and reaction to survive.
There is probably alot of literature out on the subject.
My personal belief is that fish feel the hook and realize they are injured, but do not have the emotion that goes with it. I don’t get too worked up over fish. Hey, if they could eat you, they would just swallow you and let you digest. That would be a bad way to go!! 
Went and did a quick search and foudnthis article. I’m sure there are many more out there.
“…fermented fruit of the plane?” LMFAOROTF! That was a good one 
No, I’m still at work.
I’ve simply been grapling with that question for some time, and I wondered what others thought. I do have tendency to be a bit too analytical though 
.
Like mossboss said, they’d probably eat me without a problem. 
Thanks,
OTH 
In the natural world it is eat or be eaten.
That being said there a few new studies out there that indicate that fish react to stimuli such as a hook point entering their body in the same way they do when they capture a spiny-rayed forage fish like a bluegill and they try to open their mouth and spit the bluegill (or hook)out. They also think this is why fish jump to allow them to spit out the spiny-rayed bugger by allowing them to open their mouth wider from the reduced hydrostatic pressure.
I think in the natural world that all animals have senses that feel many things but I also don’t think that fish or other animals let that affect them. All animals are just trying to make it through the day, including us humans by not be eaten up by big business. It is a cruel world out there whether you are a bass or a biologist! 
Quote:
OTW, Have you been into the fermented fruit on the plain? Or are you just stirring the pot here, PETA style? LMAO
good one chitwood!!
I’d leave this one alone!
I suggest to anyone interested in the question I posed that read the link MossBoss provided:
http://www.cotrout.org/do_fish_feel_pain.htm
It was certainly enlightening to say the least.
Thanks much, MB.
Thanks,
OTW 
Jeremy… what kind of points do you give Bass423 for the use of “Hydrostatic Pressure?” 
Bass423… thanks for the response. Is this “lifes knowledge” or did you learn this from a study or from a biologist? (Or, perhaps you are one!) The logic seems sound and was interesting to read. Thanks for sharing.
Reel Guy,
I am curious at to the points system on FTR, do I win a free smiley face on my next post for getting say, 1,000,000 points in the JC hooked on phonics, frenetic word meaning game!! 
If so I am going out tonight and buying me one of them huge dictionaries!! 
FTR (for the record) I am an aquatic biologist and do know a little of what I speak. 
Being a biologist and human WITH feelings, I have pondered some of these same questions while in college years ago and talked with many PhD types about it. They all agreed that it is really more anthropomorphic than anything due to our heightened level of emotional connection with other “animals”. We must not forget that we are animals ourselves, and some of us moreso than others!!
Use of “anthropomorphic” should make you an instant winner of something or other.
I don’t think bass feel that much pain especially in the mouth area. A few years back a buddy broke off a fish along a weed bank. A couple minutes later and about 20 feet farther up the bank I catch the same fish with his hook and worm still embedded in the bass’s mouth. You would think if it hurt he wouldn’t have hit again.
Bass423… glad to have you on this board… nice to have some expertise available to us all. Thanks for the contribution.
Jeremy and Mountain Man… better take care of this guy… he appears to be looking for 1,000,000 Points… with his background, use of large words, and potential contributions… I say you award it to him!
Anyone know what happend to our fearless leaders? Mountain Man and Jeremy??? 
Jeremy is on vacation in northern MN. He probably won’t be online until next week.
Where is the Mountain Man haven’t heard from him in weeks.
Do bass feel pain….
Plain and simple answer is Nope. They do not have the circuitry. They are not developed enough to have significant stimulation nor the ability to interpret pain if in deed they did. Many will argue that they have done tests and all this other BS to try and defend the fish feeling pain issues but they are all marketing campaigns trying to sway you to there ways of thinking.
Take for instance that I give a man a strawberry. He makes a face.. This face is either a grimace or a smile. Which one it is depends on weather or not he likes strawberries. We can not however tell either way. OK, we find out he likes strawberries and he was making a face we consider a smirk or smile. I then line up and kick him square in the package. He makes the same face… If I were to document using traditional science methods I would obviously indicate that he smirked so as a reward for this individual I have decided to kick him in the package once a day because it makes him happy….
Nope, fish do not feel pain, just stimulation and instinctual response.
Jc
This one of the funniest ways I’ve ever heard someone try to explain how people try to humanize their interpretations of animal behavior. Yup. Works for me. Please, pass the strawberries.
Quote:
Do bass feel pain….
Plain and simple answer is Nope. They do not have the circuitry. They are not developed enough to have significant stimulation nor the ability to interpret pain if in deed they did. Many will argue that they have done tests and all this other BS to try and defend the fish feeling pain issues but they are all marketing campaigns trying to sway you to there ways of thinking.
Take for instance that I give a man a strawberry. He makes a face.. This face is either a grimace or a smile. Which one it is depends on weather or not he likes strawberries. We can not however tell either way. OK, we find out he likes strawberries and he was making a face we consider a smirk or smile. I then line up and kick him square in the package. He makes the same face… If I were to document using traditional science methods I would obviously indicate that he smirked so as a reward for this individual I have decided to kick him in the package once a day because it makes him happy….
Nope, fish do not feel pain, just stimulation and instinctual response.
Jc
I’m sitting here reading the words of a fisherman I really respect for his in-depth contributions and intensive knowledgeability……………..trying to be serious and pay attention to whatever it is he’s about to reveal……………and suddenly I’m in a stooper over this analogy! My ribs HURT!!!
Jeremy, if this is your way of paying me back, I’ll take it……………but I don’t think I want any strawberries from you!!!
JC,
Would this person you gave the strawberry to by any chance a fish manager in northern MN?
Kid,
I have seen the references to getting points for big words on this thread but “knowledgeability”. If you get credit for this then I am going to hold my breath for the next 10 minutes!!
Big words don’t count……………just the ones that make you go, “that’s a word?”
I had a simple thought about this thread the other day. If a fish felt pain, would it rip it’s lips apart trying to escape? Not if comparing it to having a hook in me! You plant a hook in me and I’m thinkin’ the fight’s over! I’ll come willingly, maybe not quietly, but willingly, and cooperate in seeing it removed.
A fish fights against being captured. That world of “eat or be eaten” carries the instinct. I’ve seen fish makes things worse and it still doesn’t slow’em down. If I felt pain, I couldn’t do that.
“…package…”, “…strawberry…” Maybe I’ll just be carefulous (more careful) with my package of strawberries .
Thanks,
OnTheWater
Stillakid… Think about it differently… You can REASON (Or I assume that part of your brain has developed!)
A fish doesn’t reason… think about a different scenario, where you have NO experience… look at children, for example, as they experience things for the first time…
Someone hooks you in the mouth and begins to try and pull you toward them… They are HUGE, UGLY LOOKING (many of us are… 
), and you have NO IDEA what they have planned for you…
How about an ice fisherman…. they won’t be letting you go… So, you may consider ripping your lips off to escape the scary guy at the other end of the line!
Now, I don’t believe they feel “pain” as we feel pain… but they HAVE to feel something!
Just a little something to add about pain from personal experience….
At those times when I’ve really found myself seriously hurt or injured, I’ve felt almost no pain. I blew out my knee in high school and in that moment it didn’t hurt, but I was scared as all heck ‘cuz I knew my leg shouldn’t bend that way. I got stabbed in a work accident one time by a co-worker. Again, I wasa bit stunned but it didn’t “hurt” at the time. I just knew that knife shouldn’t be stuck in my forearm so I pulled it out. Later both injuries hurt to high heck and in recalling the injuries my memories tell me not to do those same things again. In the instant these injuries happened I’m sure adrenalin masks the pain allowing a person to maintain some level of descision making to minimize injuries or to avert worsening the situations.
Anyway, a thought about pain as it pertains to fish in that moment a hook is driven home.
Good point… REEL good point.
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