Fish trap in the context of "Fishing"

Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.

Fishing techniques include hand-gathering, spearfishing, netting, angling and trapping. Recreational, commercial and artisanal fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure or sport, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in developing countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Mostly, recreational fishers use angling methods and commercial fishers use netting methods.

A fishing net or fish net is a net used for fishing. Fishing nets work by serving as an improvised fish trap, and some are indeed rigged as traps (e.g. fyke nets). They are usually wide open when deployed (e.g. by casting or trawling), and then close off when retrieved to engulf and trap fish and other aquatic animals that are larger than the holes/gaps of the net, as well as many unwanted bycatches due to the underwater area a net can cover.

Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by knotting a relatively thin thread, and early nets were woven from grasses, vines, flaxes and other fiber crop material, while later woven cotton was used. Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still used.

Bowfishing is a fishing technique that uses specialized archery equipment to impale and retrieve fish. A bowfisher will use a bow or crossbow to shoot fish through the water surface with a barbed arrow tethered to a line, and then manually retrieve the line and arrow back, in modern times usually with a reel mounted on the bow. Unlike other popular forms of fishing where baiting and exploiting the fish's instinctual behaviors are important (e.g. angling, netting, trapping, and hand fishing such as noodling), bowfishing is similar to spearfishing and relies purely on the fisherman's own visual perception and marksmanship, and usually do not involve using other tools such as hand net.

Historically, bowfishing was practiced for subsistence, but in the 21st century it has increasingly become an outdoor sport, practiced across the United States, that is prone to unregulated waste and disposal of native species. Bowfishing has also grown in popularity due to social media influencers and YouTube outdoorsman such as the Ozark Outlaws. Sport bowfishing is unregulated and unmanaged as of 2024, but the practice is increasingly gaining attention and study across disciplines. Due to the lethality of the bow or crossbow, catch and release is not possible with bowfishing.

Groundbait is a fishing bait that is either thrown or "balled" into the water as an "appetizer" in order to olfactorily attract more fish to a designated area (i.e. fishing ground) for more efficient catching via angling, netting, trapping, or even spearing and shooting. Groundbaits are typically scattered separately from the hook and usually before even casting any rod or net, although in bottom fishing they can be deployed synchronously with hookbaits while contained inside a gradual-release device also attached to the fishing line known as a method feeder.

Groundbaits are often used in freshwater coarse fishing (where the target fish are commonly omnivorous or algivorous and might not be easily drawn to the hookbait), and can be custom-made personally by the angler or bulk-purchased from dedicated manufacturers. There are many different recipes of groundbaits that can be used to target specific species of fish. Groundbait can differ by the sizes of the crumbs, type of seed, colour and smell. The angler can also mix additives to the groundbait to alter its firmness in order to control the rate of bait release or breakdown once in the water.

Desert kites (Arabic: مصائد صحراوية, romanized: maṣāʾid ṣaḥrāwiyya, lit. 'desert traps') are dry stone wall structures found in Southwest Asia (Middle East, but also North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia), which were first discovered from the air during the 1920s. There are over 6,000 known desert kites, with sizes ranging from less than a hundred metres to several kilometres. They typically have a kite shape formed by two convergent "antennae" that run towards an enclosure, all formed by walls of dry stone less than one metre high, but variations exist.

Little is known about their ages, but the few dated examples appear to span the entire Holocene. While the majority view holds that these structures were traps for hunting game animals such as gazelles, which were driven into the kites, a minority view suggests they were used for managing livestock.

Recreational fishermen usually fish either from a boat or from a shoreline or river bank. When fishing from a boat, or fishing vessel, most fishing techniques can be used, from nets to fish traps, but some form of angling is by far the most common. Compared to fishing from the land, fishing from a boat allows more access to different fishing grounds and different species of fish.