I guess the best way to answer such a question is with another question C/22 ...

Why do you fish in the first place? It's certainly far cheaper to stock the freezer up with commerical / farmed fish if it's about the meat ...

For those that like to jab at those ecnouraging others to release what they catch by bringing up mortality (yes, it does exist) or toher similar issues. I ask you this ... thousands of people every year are injured and some even killed on the ski slopes every year; why do people continue to do it knowing that something "could" happen?

Why do people run up and down a wood floor trying to throw a ball through a metal hoop?

Why do people swipe at a little white ball with a club trying to make it go into a little hole several hundred yards away?

Why do people jump out of airplanes with only some cord and cloth to slow their descent?

Why do people suffer miserably to climb 20,000+ mountains?

Why do people drive cars in circles at 200+ mph? Or better yet, why do millions of people pay to watch it??

Why do people fling arrows at their quarry rather than shoot it with a gun. Certainly a gun is more effective and cost-efficient?

Why do people pay thousands of dollars to go look at a bear at Katmai when they could see one at the zoo for $5 or on TV for free?

I guess if you take the answers to all of the above questiosn and put them together, you might have figured out why some of us fish