Why I fly fish

by Kyle Satti~7 min read · 28th of October, 2026

People often ask me why I fish and sometimes I struggle to remember all the reasons why. I try to be really intentional with my time; it’s finite and I want to use it as best I can. So for my friends and myself, I wrote this note to capture why I continue to carve out such time for fishing.

I also wanted to take a deeper dive into my approach on the ethics of fishing, which is something I care deeply about.

Me and anyone who wants to know why I fish and how I feel about the ethics of it.

1. It’s analogue and free of tech
2. You’re immersed in nature with the force and sound of the river (and often a forest) all around you
3. It’s meditative (especially when you catch that dead drift with your fly)
4. It’s technical, can still be simple and there’s a strong feedback loop for your actions
5. It’s restorative rather than taxing (unless you hike a lot or take on strong currents, which sometimes I do!)

A bonus of fly fishing is that I really, really enjoy tying flies. It’s so calming, tactile and satisfying, especially when you tied something good enough to imitate a real insect/fish and convinces a fish to go for it.

I’ll try to carve out time to post about these soon, but in order of recency:

1. Oct 2026, Estes Park, CO – caught Brown, Cutthroat, Rainbow and Brook Trout all in one day, and to top it off my wife caught her first fish on the first fly I’d ever hand tied myself, which I only did the day prior! This was also the first fish that this fly caught.
2. July 2026, Roscoe, NY – my first solo trip where I fished for 9 hours straight and in the last hour caught two nice brown trout right in front of a Bald Eagle that had just landed on a branch opposite me. Felt insanely American haha.
3. Dec 2025, Key West, FL – caught two barracuda and almost hooked a Tarpon, both super powerful fish. We also got some bites from small sharks which was a hell of a display of power.

Studies show fish feel stress and likely pain.^1,2 They have pain receptors in their mouths and change their behavior after being hooked.² How much they actually experience is still unknown.³ The stress can impact their immune system and chances of prospering, especially if the angler does not take proper handling precautions.^4,5

When I began fishing, I initially couldn’t get past that my hobby was at the cost of health/stress of another animal. I took time to deeply and honestly consider whether it’s something I should continue to practice.

In short, I came to peace with continuing to fish as long as I do what I reasonably can to maximize the fish’s wellbeing (more on that below).

I reached this conclusion as I couldn’t find another hobby that gives me detachment from tech, immersion in nature, a challenge with a feedback loop and restoration, all in one. I considered mountain biking, but this still disturbs habitats and isn’t restorative. I considered bird watching, but this doesn’t have such a feedback loop for your actions, which means I’ll likely get bored of it. I considered climbing, but like mountain biking, it isn’t restful for me. As someone with ADHD tendencies, continuing to find hobbies is not something I’m shy towards, so maybe I’ll find something better over time.

Have you ever noticed that most people will say “awww” at the idea of a rabbit getting hurt, but when someone swats an annoying fly it’s no problem? What’s the difference between their lives? Why is one more valuable than the other?

The anthrozoologist Hal Herzog wrote a whole book on this, Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat.⁶ His research found that whether people care about an animal depends more on how cute it is than on whether it can feel anything. He also argues this inconsistency isn’t hypocrisy. It’s simply how humans are. Our ethical and compassionate tendencies are often limited to our line of sight and subconsciously harmonize with popular views on what’s humane and what is not.

I reckoned with this differently on a trip to Scotland this year (2026). I caught two sizable trout and prepared them for my friends and me to eat. I had a hard time ending the fish’s lives… but it struck me that I’ve eaten meat my whole life without a second thought.

Humans harm animals all through their lives. Most of us just don’t notice unless it’s in front of us and the animal is one we find cute.

So I don’t think giving up fishing would make me a good person. It would remove the one harm I can see while I carried on with all the ones I can’t: the chicken at a restaurant I never asked about, the clothes I didn’t fully check the origin of. This is comfort rather than ethics.

Could I do more to reduce harm? Yes, in fishing and everywhere else. Nobody living a modern life makes zero impact on the world and we can always do more to minimize it. The standard I try to hold is consistent, reasonable care: take the precautions I sensibly can, wherever I can. Fishing is one of the few places where I can see the harm directly, so it’s one of the places I take the most care.

So as long as I fish as carefully as I reasonably can, I think it’s an honest trade-off, and one I’d make again for what the river gives me.

How a fish fares after release depends mostly on the angler.^7,5 These are mine:

1. Use barbless hooks – quicker to get out and less damage to the fish’s mouth
2. Set the hook quickly – so the fish is hooked in the lip, not deep in the mouth or gut
3. Minimize the fight – the quicker the fish gets in the net, the less stress is caused^8,4
4. Use a rubber net – knotted mesh strips the slime coat and splits fins
5. Wet your hands before handling – this protects the fish’s slime coat
6. Minimize time out of the water – keep it under 30 seconds, and keep the fish in the net in the water where I can^9,10
7. [Trout] Don’t fish water above ~68°F – warm water holds less oxygen while trout need more, and deaths after release rise sharply^11,12
8. Don’t wade through redds – in spring/autumn, trout spawning beds look like clean gravel patches. Avoid going near them.

Full disclosure: this isn’t part of my case for fishing, since it helps fish populations rather than the fish that get hooked, but it’s still a positive I want to call out.

Fishing wild fisheries, paying for fishing licenses and contributing to the rural local economies all go towards giving financial motivation to keep the habitats of fish protected. In the US, a 10% federal excise tax on fishing tackle, plus taxes on motorboat fuel, funds state fisheries agencies through the Sport Fish Restoration Act of 1950.¹³ Without this keen interest from anglers, the natural habitats of fish are considered more weakly by government and companies.

The latest example: in August 2026 the US Forest Service proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which limits new road building and logging across roughly 45 million acres of national forest.¹⁴ The administration says this will help it reduce wildfire risk. Critics say it opens backcountry habitat to roads and logging. Voting and awareness raised by those interested in wildlife and nature ensure that voices are raised in the interest of the wonderful nature the world offers.