History of Fishing Poles
- In ancient Rome and Greece fishermen came to realize that poles needed to be sturdy but resilient. Too stiff a pole would snap and too flexible a pole wouldn't successfully land a larger fish. It is believed the people of the Mediterranean hit upon a compromise using a plant known as Arundo Donax or ferula, which seemed to strike the compromise needed for the pole. The line was believed to be made of horsehair or woven flax. A top of a bronze hook was sheathed over the line to protect the line from breaking and sometimes a piece of lead was attached to allow the bait to sink to the depth of the fish.
- It didn't take long to notice that fish would rise to the surface to eat new hatches of various flies, and ancient anglers began to crudely duplicate them. The first fly fishing bait was believed to be piece of red wool with rooster feathers attached for the dual purpose of simulating a fly and keeping the lure afloat. There were no reels, so fishermen had to pull the line either using the stick (fishing pole) or their hands to set the hook. They then pulled in the line hand-over-hand.
- It took more than 1,000 years for the fishing pole to evolve further, largely attributed to a book written in England in 1496 by a nun named Dame Juliana Berners, who wrote The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. This book described artificial flies, some of which are still used today, and proposed extending fishing poles to lengths of 18 to 22 feet. Another 300 years passed before adding a wire loop or ferrule at the tip to prevent the line from snagging. It was quickly learned, as well, that the line couldn't be knotted or it would snag. So woven horsehair became the prevalent form of fishing line until the advent of mono filament line many centuries later.
- By the mid 1660s, fishermen were using lines as long as 26 yards, which they soon learned snarled and tangled easily. Thus came the addition of the reel to the rod. The first reels were wooden spools with a metal ring to help guide the line on and off the spool, which fitted over the fisher's thumb. By 1770, fishing rods had guides tied the length of the pole and reels were commonly used. The materials used for the rods developed rapidly, replacing old-world woods with heavy European woods that were strong yet elastic, such as lance-wood or greenheart. By the 1900s, hexagonal fishing poles were being manufactured by laminating triangular strips of bamboo together. About the same time, horsehair was replaced by silk coated with oxidized linseed oil. By the 20th century, rods became shorter and lighter when bamboo was replaced with fiberglass or carbon fiber and nylon became the fishing line of choice. Plastics were soon introduced to mold lures replicating all kinds of natural fish cuisine.
- Fishing poles, reels, lines, bait, lures and other equipment like radar are undergoing change, if not improvement, constantly. The poles themselves have become ultra-light so the angler can feel the slightest tug, and the lines have become monofilament of varying thicknesses to prevent breakage or fish with teeth from biting through it. For fly fishing there are floating and sinking leaders to which monofilament lines and flies are tied, and lures come in all shapes and sizes, some even supersonic. Most poles are made of carbon fiber and reels have been developed for every kind of fishing imaginable--from fly fishing to trolling to spin casting to surf casting and deep sea fishing. And the pole and ancillary equipment are improving daily.