Gone Fishing!

What better way to get away from all your cares and worries than escaping to the fishing pool to indulge in a couple of hours of contemplation and fishing? Well, I can understand the need to escape and I like nothing better to sit outside and contemplate the beauty of mother nature - but I've never understood the need to fish for fun. Why would you want to put a creature through all the stress and anxiety of being caught by a sharp hook through its mouth, hoisted out of the water, man-handled to remove said hook and then thrown in a keep net, only to be released several hours later to go through it all again some other time? Answers on a postcard please!