A fishing gear is the tool with which aquatic resources are captured, whereas the fishing method is how the gear is used. Gear also includes harvesting organisms when no particular gear (tool) is involved. Furthermore, the same fishing gear can be used in different ways. A common way to classify fishing gears and methods is based on the principles of how the fish or other prey are captured and, to a lesser extent, on the gear construction.

FAO defines and classifies the main categories of fishing gear as follows:

1. Surrounding nets (including purse seines)
2. Seine nets (including beach seines and Boat, Scottish/Danish seines)
3. Trawl nets (including Bottom: Beam, Otter and Pair trawls, and Midwater trawls: Otter and Pair trawls)
4. Dredges
5. Lift nets
6. Falling gears (including cast nets)
7. Gillnets and entangling nets (including set and drifting gillnets; trammel nets)
8. Traps (including pots, stow or bag nets, fixed traps)
9. Hooks and lines (including handlines, pole and lines, set or drifting longlines, trolling lines)
10. Grappling and wounding gears (including harpoons, spears, arrows, etc.)
11. Stupefying devices

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