Discover Fishing & Angling

Despite millions of modern enthusiasts, angling is no recent fad. It has enjoyed a following that dates back to the earliest records of many civilisations, and many early accounts of fishing have survived. This account starts with the early history of angling, long before the invention of the reel float and tackle shop. It has to go back to a time from which only words survive.

In 1926, William Radcliffe published a very scholarly book about early angling, "Fishing From Earliest Times". This has been an important source for angling historians since, but it is only available in few reference libraries. It is also a very academic work, at times heavy going, looking at archaeological remains from the ancient Jews, Egyptians, Chinese, Assyrians, Romans and Greeks. He makes a clear distinction between sport fishing with a rod, and other methods of catching fish such as nets. He attributes the Egyptians as being first to use rods. They recorded the use of rods in their art more than 2000 years ago, but other much earlier archaeological evidence for the use of line and hooks can be found.

It has been suggested that the quintessential step of making fishing into a sport, rather than just a means of catching fish for food, was the invention of the rod. Unfortunately rods and lines are not likely to have survived for thousands of years, although smaller objects like hooks, have proved more durable. Whether or not a hook tied by line to a fixed stone or stick can be considered as a form of angling is something the reader can decide, but I think it is only right we include here some notes on the early archaeological evidence of hook use as well as information on rods. Incidentally, the English term angling is derived from "angle" which in its earliest use appears to mean fish hook, although it has in later times been used to mean "tackle", hook line and rod, collectively. I am therefore inclined to believe that it is the baited hook that makes a fisherman an angler, not the rod.

The oldest fish hooks that have been found to date are made of bone and were found in what was Czechoslovakia. They are believed to be an incredible 20,000 years old. Other ancient hooks from different localities have been date between 8 and 10, years old. These early hooks were made from horn bone and wood. I am not sure which is more remarkable, that these ancient artefacts made of natural materials have survived, or that they have remained in use by some cultures into the twentieth century.