I must say I've never been remotely convinced by the angler's claim that fish don't feel pain when their entire weight is being suspended on a barbed hook caught in their mouths - I've even been known to express my doubts that the maggot that was wriggling there earlier as bait was doing so in the thralls of the pleasurable tickling sensation it must be feeling - but apparently there's been a 'study' of the phenomenon, and "research shows" (don't you just love that phrase?) that fishies have feelings, too.