In the past few years I’ve been dispatching the fish I plan on eating pretty quick, (just in case), unless I put them in the live well which I rarely do,… ,straight to the ice after a quick stick or wack to the noggin’ usually.
So anyway, pain and suffering on the fish, what say you?
How about clams and oysters? I’m less sympathetic to them than say a shrimp I stabbed in the head and put out to get cut up by a crab, lol.
What about the crab?
Where’s the line, or is there one?
Growing up I was lucky my family had a lake house. Our neighbor Mr. “P” was a pretty avid fishermen. He always had friends and I guess business clients over for fishing trips. Years later, he never went anymore. One day I asked him why. He said something that really surprised me. He said something like “Eventually I felt sorry for the bait”. That stuck with me. If you think about it from the bait’s perspective - its kind of evil. That being said, I only use artificial lures 
…but that’s not the reason. Much later in life, I discovered that Mr “P” was the CEO of a large company that most ppl would recognize. I had no idea. I knew him as the guy who would bet me a dime I couldn’t get up first time on a slalom ski.
Dang, EF, that’s a tough one.
I have feelings both ways. Like, how would I feel if I had a hook in my mouth and was struggling for my life, VS, we have dominion over every creature.
Short answer, I treat every creature and person the way I hope they treat me, with kindness, respect and love.
I’ll get back when I’ve had more time to contemplate this. It’s one of the things we struggle with as we get older and wiser, imho.
These kinds of questions come up all the time in fly fishing groups, and forums. Someone claims that they really care about the fish, and whether or not they may be inflicting pain. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Some years ago, a well known fly fisher, was tying his flies without a hook point, claiming that he was satisfied with only fooling the fish into taking the fly, that he didn’t need to actually hook the fish to enjoy the sport. To each their own.
The fact is, it’s fishing and a sport, that has evolved from a need for survival, where folks caught fish by any means, to eat them. Yes, the LORD has given us dominion over these animals. Use has it’s place, but some folks want to claim that any such use, is abuse. Some folks of course do keep and eat fish, and some release them and that’s all well and good. We all fish for our own reasons and enjoyment.
I like fishing and sometimes will keep some to eat. Sometimes I release them. Whether they feel pain or not isn’t even in my thoughts. I have respect for our resources, and want to make use of them.
I won’t want to sound insensitive, but I frankly don’t care if fish feel pain. I do try, as best as I can, not to do any more harm than I can, beyond sticking a hook in them and landing them particularly when I plan to release them. I even mash down the barbs on all hooks that have barbs, and have been doing that for many years.
IMO for those folks who are that concerned about it, and are fishing, then they should stop fishing, or do like that fellow did with flies that can’t impale the fish. That’s the only way, not to have fish feel pain, if they do, by ones actions.
There may be good intentions with these various studies that have been done, but in most cases, they’re initiated by someone who wants to stop us from fishing, hunting farming, ranching or whatever else other issue they may have!
When I take my last breath in this life, that’s when I’ll stop fishing. Life is all about the choices we make. 
As I’ve gotten older, I am also more aware of our animal cousins sensitivities. This book gives a lot of interesting information about fish. In the end, the author is against fishing but I was not able to take that advice. I still enjoying fishing for fun and do it as often as possible. It dd increase my awareness and respect of fish though.