A Brief History of Fishing by Rod and Line
It's difficult to date the history of rod and line fishing precisely. It goes back to when people of pre historic times began fishing for food. Archaeologists believe that the first fishing hooks were made sometime around 30,000 years ago in southern Europe. Pieces of bone were used as hooks and thin slivers of trailing plants used as line. In Ancient China fishing line was made from silk.
The oldest known painting of an angler using a rod comes from Egypt in about 2000 BC.
The written record on fishing is much more recent. The Ancient Greeks described fishing and the writer Plutarch gave tips on fishing lines. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Macedonian anglers are said to have used artificial flies as lures. They are known to have used two cock's feathers attached to a hook. This can be said to be an early version of a fly lure. Their rod was only six feet long, and their line the same length.
The mosaic here was discovered in Tripoli and dates back to the 1st or 2nd century AD. Notice the flexible rod It is also the first ever record of the use of a landing net.
Fishing techniques and tackle developed slowly over the centuries. In a book written at the beginning of the 13th Century the German Wolfram von Eschenbach mentions the catching of trout and grayling using a "feathered hook"
In medieval times fish was a very important part of the everyday diet. Fish was encased in pastry and baked in the ashes of an open fire. It was stuffed with breadcrumbs, sultanas, fruit, herbs and spices. Salmon was so plentiful that, in the late 15th century, there was legislation stating you could not feed your apprentices salmon more than three times a week!
It was not until around the 15th.century, that fishing other than for food appears.
A book written by Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes or Bernes) in 1496 details, for the first time in English,, the use of the fishing rods and hooks. She was the prioress of Sopwell Nunnery in Saint Albans. It's interesting that the farming of fish was practiced in religious settlements by monks and nuns to satisfy the Catholic principle of not eating meat on Fridays. Many carp ponds were to be found next to Monasteries and Abbeys. Some of these remain today and attract the modern carp angler. The book “ A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle” also describes how to tie knots and use artificial lures and flies to catch game fish. The butt of the rod was made of hazel or rowan, and the top of green hazel spliced to an upper length of blackthorn, crabtree, medlar or juniper.Fishing line was made of twisted horsehair. These ideas and techniques were the basis for angling for the next 150 years.
Until the seventeenth century, fishing on inland waters remained essentially for food. And mainly for trout, salmon, carp and pike. Angling for pleasure was first described in 1653. Izaak Walton published “The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation” . It proved to be the single most influential book ever published about fishing. In it Walton addresses the skill of constructing tackle and the science of basic aquatic environment, including the feeding habits and life cycles of different species. He also describes the philosophy of “recreational anglers” believing that the true angler fishes for the love of fishing using sporting means to catch fish. Of course, in Walton's time, this meant it was an all male activity.
Sir Isaak Walton
From 1700-, as part of The Industrial Revolution, huge amounts of heavy goods needed to be moved about England and Wales. A canal network was created and these became home to many species of fish. Groups of men were joining together and competing in fishing matches. This is when “coarse angling” for species other than trout and salmon became popular amongst the working class. I suspect it was about this time that the term “coarse fishing” for roach, rudd, tench, perch, bream and chub came about, to distinguish it from the moregentlemanly “game fishing” for trout and salmon.
Not until the 20th century did women take significant part. As in other parts of life, emancipation changed things and slowly women took to fishing.
Coarse match fishing at local, regional and international levels blossomed in the 20th. Century. and the National Federation of Anglers was set up in 1903 to bring these together. The Salmon and Trout Association, also set up in 1903 by thee Worshipful Company of Fishmongers was the national body for game anglers. In 2009 the two, together with the National Assoc. of Sea Anglers, were almalgamated into one body to speak for all fishing under the name of the Angling Trust.
The World Championships in both coarse and game fishing are both well established now. In the early years international coarse angling matches were dominated by European anglers. Their expertise with poles suited a match fishing approach. How the bait was presented, float design and the efficiency and speed of the pole proved dominant. U.K. anglers took a while to catch up, but by the 1980's most match anglers had converted to using the pole in certain conditions. Since then the England team has an outstanding record with several individual World Champions and team gold in both men and women's events.
World Champion Bob Nudd and the England World Championship Ladies
From Walton's time, to the present day, anglers have continually improved fishing gear. The two piece wooden fishing rod gave way to the split cane rod, made up of several thin strips of can glued together. This, in turn, was overtaken by rods made of fibre glass and more recently by carbon fibre technology. In the 1930's Monofilament line was developed (mainly for coarse fishing) by melting and mixing polymers. In the 1940's polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coating was applied to a core of braided nylon, dacron or fibreglass to create fly fishing lines . Reels made of wood changed to ones made of brass and in modern times to steel and carbon. New technologies and the increased popularity of all types of fishing, has meant a huge industry has developed in the production of fishing equipment and baits. Far Eastern countries such as Korea, Taiwan and China lead the world in rod manufacture.
And that's a whole other story!
