1.2 : History - The Art Of Fishing Develops

The history of sport fishing in England began with the printing by Wynkyn de Worde of the Treatyse of Fysshynge With an Angle (1496) as a part of the second edition of The Boke of St. Albans, which had originally dealt only with hunting. The book was evidently based on earlier continental treatises dating to the 14th century. The artificial flies described in the Treatyse are surprisingly modern (six of the dozen mentioned are still in use). The rods are 18-22 feet long with a line of plaited horsehair tied to one end.

Printing by Wynkyn de Worde of the Treatyse of Fysshynge With an Angle (1496).

The first period of great improvement came about the mid-17th century, when Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton were writing the classic The Compleat Angler and Col. Robert Venables and Thomas Barker were describing new tackle and methods of fishing.

About this time some unknown angler attached a wire loop or ring at the tip end of the rod, which allowed a running line, useful for both casting and playing a hooked fish. Barker in 1667 mentions a salmon-fishing line of 26 yards. What was obviously needed was a means of taking up and holding such lengths and this led to the invention of the reel.

Experiments with material for the line led to the use of a gut string (mentioned by the diarist Samuel Pepys in 1667) and of a lute string (noted by Venables in 1676). The use of a landing hook, now called a gaff, for lifting large hooked fish from the water was noted by Barker in 1667.

Improved methods of fishhook making were devised in the 1650s by Charles Kirby, who later invented the Kirby bend, a distinctive shape of hook with offset point that is still in common use worldwide. Kirby and his fellow hook makers, who were also needle makers, were dispersed from their shops near Old London Bridge by the Plague and the Great Fire of London in 1666, and they ultimately established factories in Redditch around 1730.

1.2 : History - The Early History Of Fishing

Angling is a sport fishing.

FISHING, also called ANGLING, is the sport of catching fish, freshwater or saltwater, typically with rod, line, and hook. Like hunting, fishing originated as a means of providing food for survival.

Fishing as a sport, however, is of considerable antiquity. An Egyptian angling scene of about 2000 BC shows figures fishing with rod and line and with nets. A Chinese account of about the 4th century BC refers to fishing with a silk line, a hook made from a needle, and a bamboo rod, with cooked rice as bait. References to fishing are also found in ancient Greek, Assyrian, Roman, and Jewish writings.

Today, fishing, often called sport fishing to distinguish it from commercial fishing, is, despite the growth of towns and the increase of pollution in many sources, one of man's principal relaxations and is, in many countries, the most popular participant sport.

The problems of the modern angler are still those of his ancestor: where to find fish, how to approach them, and what sort of bait to use. The angler must understand wind and weather. Fishing remains what it has always been, a problem in applied natural history.

The history of angling is in large part the history of tackle, as the equipment for fishing is called. One of man's earliest tools was the predecessor of the fishhook, a gorge: a piece of wood, bone, or stone an inch or so in length pointed at both ends and secured off-center to the line. The gorge was covered with some kind of bait. When a fish swallowed the gorge, a pull on the line wedged it across the gullet of the fish, which could then be pulled in.

With the coming of the use of metals, a hook was one of the first tools made. This was attached to a hand line of animal or vegetable material, a method that is efficient only when used from a boat. The practice of attaching the line in turn to a rod, at first probably a stick or tree branch, made it possible to fish from the bank or shore and even to reach over vegetation bordering the water.

For thousands of years, the fishing rod remained short, not more than a few feet in length. The earliest reference to a longer, jointed rod is from Roman times, about the 4th century AD. At that time also, Aelian wrote of Macedonians catching trout on artificial flies and described how each fly was dressed (made). The rod they used was only 6 feet (1.8 metres) long and the line the same length, so that the method used was probably dapping, gently laying the bait on the surface of the water.

1.1 : Background

Commonly referred to parts of a fish hook are: its point - the sharp end that penetrates the fish's mouth or flesh; the barb - the projection extending backwards from the point, that secures the fish from unhooking; the eye - the end of the hook that is connected to the fishing line or lure; the bend and shank - that portion of the hook that connects the point and the eye; and the gap - the distance between the shank and the point. In many cases, hooks are described by using these various parts of the hook. Example: Wide gap, 2X Long Shank, Hollow Point, Turned down Ring Eye Bait hook.

Contemporary hooks are manufactured from high-carbon steel, steel alloyed with Vanadium, or stainless steel, depending on application. Most quality fish hooks are covered with some form of corrosion-resistant surface coating. Corrosion resistance is required not only when hooks are used, especially in saltwater, but while they are stored. Additionally, coatings are applied to color and/or provide aesthetic value to the hook. At a minimum, hooks designed for freshwater use are coated with a clear lacquer, but hooks are also coated with gold, nickel, Teflon, tin and different colors. Mustad, for example, produces hooks in six colors, including black.

1.0 : Introduction

A fish hook is a tool used for catching fishes either by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been working for centuries by fisherman to catch fresh and saltwater fish. In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools in the history of man. Fish hooks are in general attached to some form of line or lure device which connects the caught fish to the fisherman. There is a vast selection of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended reason of the fish hook. Fish hooks are manufactured for a range of purposes from common fishing to extremely limited and specialized applications. Fish hooks are designed to hold an assortment of types of artificial, processed, dead or live baits (Bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of fish prey (Fly fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that represent fish prey (Lure fishing).

Angling is a technique of fishing by means of an "angle" (fish hook). The hook is generally attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself can be dressed with lures or bait. A bite indicator such as a float is sometimes used.

Angling is a primary technique of sport fishing, but commercial fisheries also use angling methods such as long lining or trolling. Catch and release fishing is increasingly practiced by recreational fishermen. In many parts of the world, size limits apply to certain species, meaning fish below and/or above a certain size must, by law, be released.