Fishing Facts for Kids

A little girl fishing

This web page contains fishing facts for kids and is an excellent resource for anyone of any age looking to learn about catching fish. Our goal is to provide you with accurate, up to date facts about fishing. In addition to facts about fishing, we provide additional resources to help you with your research on this popular recreational activity.

The fishing facts below will help you learn about recreational fishing, commercial fishing, the different types of fishing, how fishing has evolved throughout history and other fishing related facts. We hope these fishing facts are interesting and help you learn more about this popular recreational water activity.

If any of the below fishing facts are inaccurate, please contact us and let us know.

19 Fishing Facts for Kids

  1. Fishing is the recreational, commercial or industrial act of trying to catch fish.
  2. Fishing has been practiced by humans for at least the last 40,000 years.
  3. A person who practices recreational fishing is called an angler.
  4. A recreational angler catches fish for sport and/or for food.
  5. Recreational fishing can be done from the shoreline, off a pier or on a boat.
  6. There are several different recreational fishing methods used by anglers. Some of these methods include traditional fishing, fly fishing and ice fishing.
  7. The traditional fishing method uses a fishing pole, reel, line with a hook or artificial bait.
  8. The fly fishing method uses a fly rod, fly reel, fly line and an artificial fly or bait.
  9. The ice fishing method is used out on bodies of water where the surface is frozen. The angler uses the same equipment as traditional fishing, along with specialized fishing equipment, like an ice auger to cut into the ice.
  10. In the United States, adults need to have a fishing license issued by the U.S. state they want to fish in.
  11. In 2019, over 20.6 million fishing licenses were issued to residents in varies states in the United States.
  12. Many federal and state fishing laws exist to protect sport fish populations, prevent bodies of water from being polluted and ensure anglers can enjoy fishing for many years to come.
  13. A person who practices commercial fishing is called a commercial fisherman.
  14. A commercial fisherman catches fish to be sold for a profit.
  15. A commercial fisherman catches fishing using traditional fishing poles, trolling, trawling and with traps.
  16. A company who practices large-scale commercial fishing is called an industrial fishing company.
  17. Industrial fishing companies catch fish to be sold for a profit.
  18. Industrial fishing companies sometimes use large factory ships that can stay out on the water for weeks. One large factory fishing ship can catch, clean, process and freeze the fish.
  19. Many of the methods used by the commercial fisherman and industrial fishing companies are harmful to the Earth’s oceans. They habitually catch the wrong species of fish and end up killing a lot of other marine species.

Additional Resources on Fishing