Sport fishermen around the world—regardless of their language and nationality—are unified by one thing: the passion for fishing with a rod, line, and hook.
I believe the source of this enjoyment can be traced to our ancient, inherited instincts.
When you tally it up, not many generations separate us from our primeval ancestors.
And though our clothes and customs mean culture, we are still wild enough in genetic terms.
Perhaps that’s why we, as civilized savages, experience deep satisfaction in feeling a fish gobble our deceptive lures.
Perhaps that’s what makes us fight the fish with everything our age has to offer: rods, reels, line, and bait.
I think it’d be nice to take a walk back in time.
Let’s say, 6,000 or 7,000 years ago.
Wouldn’t it be fun to hop down to our favorite fishing hole—Greenbrier or Glade Creek, Bluestone or Guyandotte, Cranberry or Second Creek—and peek into the past?
Since man has been harvesting fish since 30,000 or 40,000 B.C., there’s a good chance someone was probably using their primitive skills on our favorite streams several thousand years before Columbus got around to discovering America.
True, the enterprising angler might have been using a spear or trap or net to get the job done, but he did get it done.
It’s also just as likely that the primitive sportsman used a hook and line same as you and I do, only his tackle probably was hand-crafted for a specific fishing task.
Exactly when and where hooks were adopted is unknown, but it was probably in southern Europe about 30,000 B.C. These barbed hooks were made chiefly of bone, but presumably also of wood.
The hooks likely were fastened on a line made of animal sinews or thin, tough plant materials such as roots, vines, and various grasses.
They would certainly have been baited with similar kinds of enticing materials still in use today—worms, mussels, small fish or whatever else might attract the big ones to strike.
Archaeology proves that the art of angling was relatively refined as early as 7,000 years ago.
Among some archaeological finds are floats that were cut from bark and used in fishing with hooks.
Three thousand years later, Egyptian paintings showed how to fish with a rod, top-knotted line, and hook.
This is the first evidence that people actually practiced a kind of fishing which, at least superficially, was quite similar to the angling of today.
Fishing with natural bait, it is not a big step to using artificial bait.
Another likelihood is that people soon realized how closely the natural prey of fish can be imitated by hairs and feathers.
Wasn’t it the old Greek, Theocritus, who about 300 B.C. wrote the first literary description of fishing with hook and rod?
The ancient writer and his social class in Greece certainly had no need to fish for food.
By the year 200 B.C. the Chinese had developed sport fishing so far that silk lines and metal hooks were being used.
Macedonians fished with artificial baits made of hair and feathers; and, while the lures probably more closely resembled jigs than flies, they were doubtless just as effective as the ones we now use.
Just how far advanced these people were clear from the fact that iron hooks began to be manufactured in Europe only three centuries later, in the middle of the Iron Age.
It’d be fun to step through a time warp and observe first-hand the methods of those ancient anglers on the waters we now call our own, as if we’d only recently discovered the sport of fishing.
We might be astonished to witness some old savage angler—the Moundbuilders certainly were acquainted with fishing as a facet of their diverse livelihood—harvesting the catch of a lifetime (though probably not one for hanging on the wall).
It’s fun to speculate.
And to an extent, we are blessed with good fortune several thousand years later, blessed with the resources and the leisure to pursue one of mankind’s most popular pastimes.
In the U.S. many state, federal and private organizations spend millions of dollars annually to keep a plentiful supply of fishes available for sportsmen to catch.
Catching fishes from the oceans, lakes or streams is not only the most popular but probably the oldest pastime pursued by man.
Thousands of years ago men caught fishes in nets and traps woven out of vines. They also fashioned hooks from bone, stone, and thorns and baited them with worms, grubs, or insects.
The term fishing applies to the act of catching a fish from its natural home, the water.
Fishing is a popular sport because anyone can engage in it, regardless of age, sex, or income. It can be enjoyed from childhood to old age, individually or in groups, with little more investment than a cane pole and a few hooks.
Within an hour from most homes, there is usually a place to fish.
Perhaps the greatest appeals in fishing for fun are the opportunities it offers to get outdoors, to enjoy the companionship of friends, to learn interesting facts about nature, and to use new and varied skills to outwit the fish.
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Top o’ the morning!