Traditional Fishing Tools
- In many ways, basic fishing tools have remained unchanged since ancient times.fishing poles image by Scott McCarty from Fotolia.com
Fishing has been a method of finding sustenance since the first days of mankind---long before it also became a recreational sport. From carving wooden sticks for spearing fish in shallow waters to inventing the latest digital fish-finding devices, people have steadily advanced in the art of finding creative and more efficient ways to increase the haul of fish. Some methods have remained in continuous use since those early days. Although they have been refined and improved over hundreds or even thousands of years, the basic operation and design of these tools have remained the same. - Fishing nets have been used since time immemorial to catch fish. Chinese fishermen were using them several thousand years ago and the Greeks and Romans left written and pictorial works depicting their use. Nets are featured prominently in the New Testament; before he was an apostle, Peter was a fisherman, and Scripture describes his use of fishing nets.
Nets have continued in usage up through modern times. Individual anglers use handheld nets to land their catch. Indigenous and native peoples around the world use large nets, cast from shore or from boats, to bring in a load of fish. Seines, large nets with weights along the bottoms, are used by commercial fishing enterprises to haul in catches by the thousands; there are also smaller versions of seines that are used by individuals in streams and rivers. - The hook is one of the oldest tools that people have used to catch fish. Hooks, made from bone, wood, shells, stone or metals, have been found in archeological digs dating back thousands of years. With its sharpened point, a hook is designed to catch a fish in one of two ways: by hooking in the mouth, after being ingested by the fish, or by impaling the fish on some other part of its body, usually after dragging the hook (or multiple hooks) through the water. Fish hooks, in many configurations, continue to be the mainstay of many commercial fishermen and every recreational angler.
Fishing line, made from hair, twine, silk or even animal intestines, has been in use just as long as hooks. In modern times, fishing line is a big industry, with manmade materials producing lines of good quality at reasonable cost. The most common fishing line is monofilament (single-strand) line made from polymers, although other materials are also in use today. Fly fishing lines consist of multiple braided strands of different materials, yielding a product suitable to the particular demands of that sport.
Although complex reels are a fairly modern development, the fishing rod has been around since ancient times. For centuries, a fishing rod usually consisted of nothing more complicated than a few feet of cane or wood. Today, fishing rods are available in countless variations and are fabricated from exceptional materials, such as graphite and carbon fiber, that provide unparalleled strength and durability for a reasonable cost. - The sharpest hook is useless if a fish cannot be enticed to bite it. Although lures and flies might seem to be modern inventions in the art of fishing, "Claudius Aelianus, a Roman who lived during the third century A.D., wrote of fly-fishing for trout and other kinds of sport fishing. He made lures of feathers, lead, bronze, and wild boar's bristles and used horsehair and twisted flax to make his fishing line," according to MadeHow.com. Today's angler has a choice of hundreds of types of lures, including artificial flies, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs, plugs, plastic baits, spoons and topwater lures. Many lures are meant to mimic the appearance of the creatures on which fish feed.
