us related to it, is patriotic in the broadest sense of the word.

K. Paustovsky

* * *

To say that catching fish is the lot of "old people, children and the feeble-minded" is possible only with considerable courage and complete ignorance of the matter.

P. G. Cherkasov

* * *

... Until recently, anglers were considered almost eccentrics, people not of this world. And now our favorite pastime is included in the cosmonauts' recreation program. There is strength in fishing: both physical and spiritual. And to gain such power, you need to know and be able to do a lot.

N. P. Dubinin, Academician

* * *

Dialogue with the designer of rocket and space systems Academician M. K. Yangel:

What attracts you to fishing?

— Tranquility. The opportunity to relax ... Completely disconnected from all your affairs. Only one concern: how to fish out a perch or carp ...

Many people think that fishing is a waste of time.

“I feel sorry for these people. Fishing is one of the forms of communication with nature, and since it has existed since the very day that man appeared on the planet, believe me, this is one of the most time-tested human passions.

* * *

Who can not live without fishing, it is possible to do without fish.

* * *

Fishing is like a playful woman. A dozen men will wink, one will be rewarded ...

* * *

- Where have you been?

- Caught carp.

And did you catch a lot?

- No one.

“Then how do you know that you were catching carp?”

- Well, how did you go fishing?

- Yes, I stood for three hours - and did not catch anything.

Well, you're still lucky. I stood for six hours - and the result is the same.

* * *

After unsuccessful fishing:

- Nothing, but now we know well those places where no fish are caught.

* * *

There's a type of friend we don't ask for,
They come and do good.
So it always comes to me autumn,
Or maybe I myself to her. Vice versa?
But, there is no doubt, we are glad to each other.
Throwing donks and fanning the fire,
I sit down with her under the cooler next to me
Rain with the river to listen to the conversation.
So every year we meet again.
And the clock is running fast again...
How poor the world would be without the fisherman
On the wet autumn shore!
A. Limonov
* * *

Life

Life is like the ocean, and we are all just fishermen: we dream of fishing for a whale, but we get a cod tail.

F. Logau, German satirist

FISHING

Fishing, like other hunts, can be a simple inclination, and even a strong passion.
S. T. Aksakov
So what is fishing? Let's try to understand this seemingly simple issue and start with the basic concepts and definitions related to fishing.

Fishing in a broad sense is the extraction of fish from natural reservoirs and reservoirs, a branch of human production activity.

As shown in the previous chapter, fishing is one of the oldest forms of human economic activity. For the primitive population, fishing was one of the main means of subsistence, and then, with the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, it became an auxiliary, but nevertheless an important branch of the economy.

Distinguish commercial and recreational fishing. The main task of the first is to provide the population with fish and fish products. This task is solved by state enterprises and organizations (fish processing plants, fish farms, fish factories, etc.), and professional fishermen who use industrial fishing gear (nets, seines, trawls, etc.) and who have at their disposal a small fishing fleet are engaged in the direct production of fish.

The purpose of recreational fishing, as is commonly believed, is the production of fish for personal consumption. The share of amateur catch in the total volume of fish withdrawn from water bodies is not so small.

Let 100,000 people in the Republic of Belarus be actively involved in fishing for personal consumption, and each of them fish for 20 days a year, catching 1 kg of fish per day. The annual catch will be 2,000 tons of fish, which is 2.2 times higher than the catch of all enterprises of the republic's fisheries in natural reservoirs in 1994 (918.5 tons). But there are also artificial reservoirs (pond farms), which provide more than 85% of fish production (in 1993, for example, about 6 thousand tons of fish).

On the other hand, we greatly underestimate the indicators of amateur catch. After all, every amateur fisherman who is regularly engaged in fishing, without much difficulty and without violating the Fishing Rules, can remove 100 kg or more of fish per year from water bodies for personal consumption.

The situation is similar in other CIS countries. In many areas, for example, in the basins of the Volga and the Dnieper, amateur catches are much larger than those of fishing organizations. In the USSR, amateur fishermen caught 400-500 thousand tons of fish per year, which is twice the commercial catch.

It should be noted that all over the world the main supplier of fish and fish products is still oceanic and marine fisheries. On an all-Union scale, its share was more than 90%.

According to the Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, the scientifically based norm for the consumption of fish and other seafood per person per year is 18–20 kg, including 5 kg of live fish. This norm in 1980 was exceeded only in the RSFSR (21.8 kg), Estonian (23.1 kg) and Latvian (23.4 kg) SSR, and in no republic was the consumption norm of live fish reached (the best indicator in the country belonged to the Donbass - 3 kg of live fish).

In the Byelorussian SSR, the annual consumption of fish per person in 1980 was 15.8 kg, in the best years it reached 20 kg, and then decreased significantly (mainly due to a reduction in catch in inland waters and due to a sharp increase in fish prices and fish products). Thus, according to the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the annual consumption of fish in all types per person fell to 6 kg, and in 1994 it was only 3 kg, which is about three times less than in Russia.

In connection with the foregoing, it is difficult to overestimate the contribution that amateur fishermen make to satisfying the demand for food, delivering fresh fish to their families, which is indispensable in the human diet. This is the economic, in the narrow consumer sense of this concept, the significance of fishing, which cannot be ignored.

Equally important are the social aspects of recreational fishing. Indeed, for one person who came to the reservoir in order to catch fish, there are several people for whom "gastronomic interests" are not significant. Fishing, first of all, is a hobby, a passion, or, as they say now, a hobby.

Fishing is also one of the outdoor activities in close contact with nature. Here is what the modern publicist Yu. Loshchits writes about fishing: “The time spent by the water washes away a lot of all sorts of sediment from our thoughts: distrust of others, disbelief in one’s own strength, irritability, fussiness, gloom, envy - in a word, everything that depresses the soul, makes her stunted and inactive, ”and it’s hard to disagree with this.

On the pond, a person is distracted from numerous everyday worries and completely surrenders to his passion. At the same time, fishing switches the nervous system into the sphere of new, healthy emotions.

The specificity of modern production has changed the nature of labor in the direction of reducing physical activity and increasing nervous tension, and fishing has become one of the most democratic and accessible types of physical activity for the general working population.

The fisherman, as a rule, has to walk a lot, and even with a tightly packed backpack or box, or even with an inflatable boat, perform many casts of bait, make frequent body turns, bends and squats, row, drill holes, i.e. turn on in the work of almost all muscle groups, which has a positive effect on cardiac activity.

“In a person who is near a river, lake or pond, the pulse is 5–7 beats less, the respiratory rate decreases by 2–5 movements per minute, and pulmonary ventilation increases by 12–15%. This happens because the air temperature is lower near water bodies, its dust content is lower, and humidity is higher ”(Academician A. L. Myasnikov). It should also be emphasized that fishing, due to the activity of the fishing process itself, a person breathes deeply, as a result of which blood stagnation in the lower parts of the lungs is eliminated, and this is very important for maintaining efficiency and preventing diseases of the cardiovascular system.

In the bosom of nature, a person is treated by silence. The high level of noise in a modern city, as established by medicine, can cause noise sickness, leading to disruption of the normal functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Head and heart pains, insomnia, irritability appear, a person quickly gets tired - in a word, all the signs of hypertension are present. Fishing can be one of the preventive measures against hypertension.

In recent years, physicians of various profile (cardiologists, therapists, neuropathologists, psychologists), more and more often traditional methods of treatment are supplemented with treatment by fishing, or, as anglers say, "ichthyotherapy". First of all, fishing is recommended for those who suffer from exhaustion of the nervous system, insomnia and high blood pressure.

Amateur fishermen, in the vast majority, are distinguished by enviable health. In any team, a fisherman can be immediately recognized by an elastic gait, a healthy color of a weather-beaten and tanned face, a strong handshake. Fishing enthusiasts tend to be reluctant to talk about their illnesses, if they have them,