From Bone To Fish-Hook by Darren G. Burton

The art of fishing originated purely as a means of providing food for survival.

Stone age man used nets woven out of vines with which to snare fish. Australian Aborigines, before European settlement, used spears, nets, traps and poisons. They also employed the use of a stick with a line made of plant fibre attached. A hook on the end of the line was made of carved bone or wood.

Other accounts in history date fishing back to 2000 B.C. in Egyptian times. Ancient drawings in this period depict Egyptian anglers using a stick with a vine dangling off the tip. Similar drawings appear from the period 400 B.C. in China, with fisherman using rods, lines and nets.

In the days of the Roman Empire, fishing as a recreational activity was confined to the wealthy; those with leisure time on their hands to pursue the relaxing past-time. Wealthy Romans constructed their own "fish ponds", which they had slaves fill with live fish. This provided the affluent fisherman an easy catch for sport, and for the table.

Trout fishing, using artificial flies made from hair with a hook attached, was invented by the Macedonians in 400 A.D. Using a rod (stick) of approximately six feet long and a line of the same length, anglers would gently lay the artificial bait on the surface of the water where the trout would feed.

Fishing techniques and equipment remained basically unchanged for the next ten centuries. It wasn't until the 1400's that sport fishing really began. The increase in its popularity inevitably led to greater refinements to the equipment used in the growing past-time.

In 1496 sport fishing was introduced to England by Dame Juliana Berners, when Berners published a book on the subject titled: Treatyse of Fisshynge With An Angle. The use of artificial flies was described in the book, six of which are still commonly used today. This work also offered solid accounts of the use of the fishing rod, information on how to make rods, hooks, how to tie appropriate knots and how to construct artificial flies and lures. The feeding habits of fish were described, along with the best natural baits and methods of how, when and where to catch them.

Although it is believed Stone Age Man used hooks when fishing, actual factual accounts didn't exist until around 2000 B.C. Hooks were made primarily of bone, stone, wood, shell and thorns. But it wasn't until 1560 that the modern steel hook was born. The steel hook originated in Redditch, England; a town that was renowned for its needle making. So therefore, the father of the steel hook was the needle, bent into a curve with an eye and a sharp point.

In the mid 1600's, Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton wrote the classic The Compleat Angler. This book further contributed to the knowledge of fishing techniques. The authors accounted extensive observations on the feeding patterns of fish and their likely habitats. They offered tips on overcoming the problems anglers faced in landing fish, giving advice on how to outwit their prey. Walton also stressed that the true angler is one who fished for the love of fishing, and he promoted angling as a sport.

During the period of the release of this classic fishing guide an unknown angler attached a loop to the tip of a rod, allowing a running line that was useful for both casting, and for playing a hooked fish. With the advent of this new method, lines grew longer, and some sort of appropriate instrument was required that could take up and hold the longer lines. This necessity gave birth to the reel.

The first reels were a wooden spool with a metal ring that was fitted to the angler's thumb. Reels that were fitted to the rod weren't to be invented for a further hundred and fifty years.

The 1650's saw major improvements in the hooking efficiency of fish-hooks. Charles Kirby saw to these changes which soon led to the invention of the Kirby bend; where the fish-hook had an offset bend in relation to the eye of the hook. Previous hooks had simply been curved around and still in line with the hook's eye. The Kirby bend is what's still in use today with the manufacture of modern fish-hooks.

Two new innovations took place in the art of angling in 1667. First, gut string was used to replace previous, inferior materials. For hundreds of years line was made out of braided horse tail hairs, or a mixture of horse tail hairs and silk thread. These were coated with linseed oil. But they were thick, cumbersome, difficult to manufacture, and readily visible to the fish. Gut string was simpler to produce, much stronger and less visible.

The second innovation of 1667 was the introduction of a landing hook for big fish: The gaff.

By 1770, rods with guides were spawned to cater for the use of longer lines.

It was also around this time that the first true reel was invented.. This first decent, practical reel was a geared, multiplying reel which was attached under the rod as reels are today. A single turn of the handle rotated the spool through several revolutions. This reel became the prototype of the bait-casting reel invented by two Kentucky watchmakers in the early 1800's.

The British weren't favourable to this American reel, so they produced their own breed; known generally as the Nottingham reel, after the town in which it was produced. This particular reel had a wide drum, was ungeared and free-running. It allowed bait to be cast on the surface of a stream and to be carried with the current. This reel led to the design of the fly-fishing reel.

Prior to the 1850's, fishing rods evolved from sticks to wood. Rods in the United States and Europe were generally twelve feet long and quite heavy. They were constructed of four lengths of wood spliced together with metal ferrules, and had a whalebone tip.

1846, however, saw the introduction of a much better rod to the angler's marketplace: the bamboo rod. The four strip split-bamboo rod was developed by Samuel Phillippe, of Easton, Pennsylvania, and was refined by Hiram L. Leonard in Bangor, Maine. The introduction of this lighter, more flexible rod led to a distinct increase in the popularity of sport fishing.

Bamboo canes from South-East Asia were used in the early designs of this rod. The strips of split-bamboo were steamed straight, planed to a uniform thickness and bevelled into tapered shapes with triangular cross sections. When these sticks were glued together, the joints were staggered to ensure optimum strength. They were then sanded and varnished, with the sections joined by metal ferrules. Runners, guides and cork grips were then affixed.

The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the six strip split-bamboo rod become standard for fly-fishing.

In 1880 the firm of Malloch, Scotland, invented the world's first turntable reel. It was designed with one side of the spool left open. When cast, the spool was turned ninety degrees (like the Alvey reel) so the line slipped off easily. The spool was then turned back parallel to the rod for line retrieval. This reel was designed and used for heavy casting in fishing for salmon.

Influenced by this reel, English textile magnate, Holden Illingworth, invented what the British called the fixed-spool reel. Americans dubbed it the spinning reel. On this particular reel, the spool permanently faced up the rod allowing the line to peel off when cast, and locked for retrieval.

William Shakespeare of Kalamazoo, Michigan, devised the level-wind reel in 1896. This reel automatically spread the line evenly across the spool as it was retrieved.

Several developments took place during the 1930's. One of the most important was the production of nylon monofilament fishing line; a line that was far less visible to fish than any of its predecessors. This synthetic line became dominant after the Second World War. Plastic also became the dominant material used in the manufacture of lures. And after the 1930's, with the world-wide distribution of the fixed-spool reel, angling as a sport and past-time really boomed.

The International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) was founded in Florida in 1939 to promote ethics and acceptable angling practices. This association also serves as a centre for processing and collecting world record data.

The 1950's saw the game fishing potential of Australia realised when pioneers of the Moreton Bay Club fished off the coast of Cairns and Lizard Island with some considerable catches. Charter boats went out from Cairns, giving sport fishermen the opportunity to go game fishing, thus greatly increasing the popularity of the sport. Some of the catches were so prolific that Cairns was rated as having the best black marlin in the world.

More advancements and improvements were made to fishing tackle in the 1950's. Fibreglass cloth was developed and used in the production of fishing rods. The tubular fibreglass rods that developed were sturdier and cheaper to manufacture than the split-bamboo variety. Fibreglass rods could also be mass-produced to meet with the ever-increasing demands of the marketplace.

In more recent years, superior carbon fibre has replaced fibreglass in rod manufacture.

Which brings us to today, where sport fishing and recreational angling has grown to become one of the most popular recreational activities in the world.