Fishing lure in the context of "Spoon lure"

Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is occupational fishing activities done for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival and livelihood.

The most common form of recreational fishing is angling, which is done with a rig of rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits, as well as other complementary devices such as weights, floats, swivels and method feeders, collectively referred to as terminal tackles. Lures are frequently used instead of fresh bait when fishing for predatory fishes. Some hobbyists hand-make custom tackles themselves, including plastic lures and artificial flies.

Jigging is the practice of fishing with a jig, a type of weighted fishing lure. A jig consists of a heavy metal (typically lead) sinker with an attached fish hook that is usually obscured inside a soft lure or feather-like decorations. Jigs are intended to create a jerky, vertical "jumping" motion to attract fish, as opposed to other common lures like swimbaits, spoons and spinnerbaits, which move through the water more or less horizontally. The jig is very versatile and can be used in both salt and fresh water. Many deeper water fish species are attracted to the lure, which has made it popular among anglers for years.

The jigging technique mainly involves rapid lifting motions of a fishing rod, which jerk the line exert a temporarily upward pull upon the sinking lure. When the target fish is enticed to swallow the lure, the angler then sets the hook to pierce and tether the fish in the mouth. Because the jigs are weighted, a harder-than-usual hookset is often needed to overcome the added weight and provide sufficient momentum to pierce the hook point into the fish mouth. Jigging gears are often involved with the luring of slow moving fish, most commonly during spawning periods. For successful jigging, the jigger needs to use a sensitive rod that is good for feeling a strike, and needs to stay in contact with the lure and get it to where the fish are. Most fish caught by jigs are on or near the bottom.

Angling (from Old English angol, meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless techniques such as handlining also exist. Modern angling rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a cranking device for storing, retrieving and releasing out the line, although Tenkara fishing and traditional cane pole fishing are two rod-angling methods that do not use any reel. The fish hook itself can be additionally weighted with a denser tackle called a sinker, and is typically dressed with an appetizing bait (i.e. hookbait) to attract and entice the fish into swallowing the hook, but sometimes an inedible fake/imitation bait with multiple attached hooks (known as a lure) is used instead of a single hook with edible bait. Some type of bite indicator, such as a float, a bell or a quiver tip, is often used to relay underwater status of the hook to the surface and alert the angler of a fish's presence.

When angling, the fisherman (known as the angler) will first throw the hook (i.e. "cast") to a chosen area of water (i.e. fishing ground), and then patiently wait for fish to approach and devour the hookbait. It is also not uncommon for the angler to scatter some loose bait (groundbait) around the target area before even casting the hook, to better attract distant fish with scents. If a fish has succumbed to its own feeding instinct and swallowed the baited hook (i.e. "bite" or "strike"), the hook point will likely pierce into and anchor itself inside the fish jaw, gullet or gill, and the fish in turn becomes firmly tethered by the fishing line. Once the fish is hooked (often colloquially called "fish-on"), any struggles and attempts to escape will pull along the line, causing the bite indicator to signal the angler, who jerks the fishing rod back to further deepen the hook anchorage (i.e. "setting the hook") and then tries to retrieve the line back, pulling the fish closer in the process. During the line retrieval, the angler will carefully monitor the line and rod tension to avoid equipment breaking. With stronger and feistier fish, the angler might need to temporarily halt or even reverse the line retrieval to prolong the struggle time and tire out the fish (i.e. "walking" the fish), before dragging it near enough to eventually lift it out of the water (known as "landing") for a successful catch. Sometimes a hand net (or "landing net") or a long-handled hook is used to make fetching the fish easier.

A fishing rod or fishing pole is a long, thin rod used by anglers to catch fish by manipulating a line ending in a hook (formerly known as an angle, hence the term "angling"). At its most basic form, a fishing rod is a straight rigid stick/pole with a line fastened to one end (as seen in traditional bamboo rod fishing such as Tenkara fishing); however, modern rods are usually more elastic and generally have the line stored in a reel mounted at the rod handle, which is hand-cranked and controls the line retrieval, as well as numerous line-restricting rings (also known as line guides) that distribute bending stress along the rod and help dampening down/prevent line whipping and entanglement. To better entice fish, baits or lures are dressed onto the hook attached to the line, and a bite indicator (e.g. a float) is typically used, some of which (e.g. quiver tip) might be incorporated as part of the rod itself.

Fishing rods act as an extended lever and allow the angler to amplify line movements while luring and pulling the fish. It also enhances casting distance by increasing the launch speed of the terminal tackles (the hook, bait/lure, and other accompanying attachments such as float and sinker/feeder), as a longer swing radius (compared to that of a human arm) corresponds to greater arc speed at the tip under the same angular velocity. The length of fishing rods usually vary between 0.6 m (2 ft) and 4.6 m (15 ft) depending on the style of angling, while the Guinness World Record is 22.45 m (73 ft 7.9 in).

Fishing tackle is the equipment used by anglers when fishing. Almost any equipment or gear used in fishing can be called fishing tackle, examples being hooks, lines, baits/lures, rods, reels, floats, sinkers/feeders, nets, spears, gaffs and traps, as well as wires, snaps, beads, spoons, blades, spinners, clevises and tools that make it easy to tie knots.

Tackle attached to the end of a fishing line that gets cast out along with the bait are referred to as terminal tackle. Terminal tackle can include hooks, leaders, floats, sinkers/feeders, swivels and attached snaps and/or split rings. Sometimes the term "rig" is used for a specific assemblage of terminal tackle.

A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English angol and Proto-Germanic *angulaz), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by impaling and snagging the external fish body. Fish hooks are normally attached to a line, which tethers the target fish to the angler for retrieval, and are typically dressed with some form of bait or lure that entices the fish to swallow the hook out of its own natural instinct to forage or hunt.

Fish hooks have been employed for millennia by fishermen to catch freshwater and saltwater fish. There is an enormous variety of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended purpose of the hook. Fish hooks are manufactured for a range of purposes from general fishing to extremely limited and specialized applications. Fish hooks are designed to hold various types of artificial, processed, dead or live baits (bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of invertebrate prey (e.g. fly fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that mimic prey (lure fishing). In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the Top 20 tools in human history.

A rig is an arrangement of items used for fishing. It can be assembled of one or more lines, hooks, sinkers, bobbers, swivels, lures, beads, and other fishing tackle. A rig might be held by a rod, by hand, or attached to a boat or pier. Some rigs are designed to float near the surface of the water, others are designed to sink to the bottom. Some rigs are designed for trolling. Many rigs are designed especially for catching a single species of fish, but will work well for many different species.

Fishing bait is any luring substance used specifically to attract and catch fish, typically when angling with a hook and line. There are generally two types of baits used in angling: hookbaits, which are directly mounted onto fish hooks and are what the term "fishing bait" typically refers to; and groundbaits, which are scattered separately into the water as an "appetizer" to attract the fish nearer to the hook. Despite the bait's sole importance is to provoke a feeding response out of the target fish, the way how fish react to different baits is quite poorly understood.

Fishing baits can be grouped into two broad categories: natural baits and artificial baits. Traditionally, fishing baits are natural food or prey items (live or dead) that are already present in the fish's normal diet (e.g. worms, insects, crustaceans and smaller bait fish), and such baits are both procured from and used within the same environment. Artificial baits, conversely, are not naturally acquired and must involve some kind of production process. These can be processed foods (e.g. bread, cheese, dough, cutlets, fish food or pet food pellets, etc.), commercially made feed mixtures (e.g. boilies), or imitative replica "fake foods" made of inedible materials known as lures (e.g plastic worm, swimbaits, spoons, stickbaits, hybrid spinners or even bionic robot fish). The variety of baits that a fisherman may choose is dictated mainly by the target species and by its habitat, as well as personal preference. Both natural and artificial baits frequently demonstrate similar efficiency if chosen adequately for the target fish. The overall bait type, size and techniques used will affect the efficiency and yield when fishing.

A fishing sinker, plummet, or knoch is a weight used in conjunction with a fishing lure or hook to increase its rate of sink, anchoring ability, and/or casting distance. Fishing sinkers may be as small as 1 gram (0.035 oz) for applications in shallow water, and even smaller for fly fishing applications, or as large as several pounds (>1 kg) or considerably more for deep sea fishing. They are formed into many different shapes for diverse fishing applications. Environmental concerns surround the usage of lead and other materials in fishing sinkers.

A fishing swivel is a small, usually ball- or barrel-shaped device used in angling to connect sections of fishing lines, consisting of two rings linked via a thrust bearing pivot joint. The line from the rod and reel is tied to the ring at proximal end, and the line leading to the terminal tackles (the hook, lure and/or sinker) is tied to the other ring at the distal end. Snap swivels have a safety pin-like fastener (i.e. "snap hook") linked to at least one of the rings, which allows quick detachment and interchanging of different lures.

The main purpose of the swivel is to allow the two line sections to rotate independently of each other, which allows self-unwinding of any twists formed during line casting and retrieval, preventing undesirable tanglings. This is particularly important for users of monofilament fishing lines that tend to express memory and form coils when released from a fixed-spool reel. A secondary benefit of the fishing swivel is that it may function as a stopper for sliding sinkers, which depending on fishing method may be placed before or after the swivel. Three-way swivels provide an additional ring that serves as a point of connection for side-branching line segments, which are essential for certain line and hook setups.