History of fishing: History of fishing reels
Fishing History
Fishing began as a method of survival in prehistoric times and eventually developed into an industry, sport, and recreation. It was developed with technology and today we have modern fishing equipment for different types of fishing.
Catching fish (and even shellfish, cephalopods, crustaceans, and echinoderms) is called fishing. It is an activity that humanity carries out for at least 40,000 years and was (and still is) important for survival and the quality of nutrition. About the talk is All history of fishing below:
Table of Contents
History Of Fishing stories
Salmon fishing on the Mitis River spans millennia. Recent archaeological digs, which took place at the mouth of the river, show that native peoples used to come here to fish and likely feasted on the abundant salmon. In 1850, prosperous athletes began to cast their line on the rivers of Quebec to practice this noble sport. The rivers of Gaspésie and Côte-Nord then acquired a mythical character thanks to their beauty and the quantity of good-sized salmon they contained.
The Mitis River has been identified as a river with great potential, but there have been many obstacles for salmon to overcome, such as dams and spillways, used by the timber industry, and later hydroelectric dams, to meet the needs of modern life. The salmon even came close to extinction.
George Stephen, the man behind the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was drawn to the great beauty of the site at the mouth of the river. So he bought land on both sides of the river, acquired fishing rights, and built Villa Estevan, his fishing camp frequented by many dignitaries. My great-grandmother, Elsie Reford, inherited this private estate in 1918. Like her uncle, she was fond of salmon fishing.
Today, the Mitis river has changed a lot. There is no longer a private paradise. It is accessible to everyone over almost its entire length. Salmon is abundant there. The estate took the name of Jardins de Métis, a historic site in Canada and a heritage site in Quebec. Villa Estevan has become a cultural space. More than 50,000 people come there each year.
This exhibition on salmon fishing on the Mitis River explores the history of the people it inspired, the singular attraction that we have developed for this fish, Salmo salar – the jumper – known for its characteristic of returning to spawn in its original river. The Mitis River has always had a special hold on humans who, like salmon, return there for an annual pilgrimage.
Fishing Tackle
Angling is an ancient sport, but it began with primitive means because it began in the 15th century. Today we have rods made of modern materials, thousands and thousands of hooks, and so many artificial lures that make fishing so much easier.
Fishing Data
They say that there are more species of fish in the world than any other group of vertebrates. And they are all different, they have different characteristics and can be fished in different ways.
When did people begin fishing?
Brief History Of Fishing
There is evidence that Tianyuan man (whose bones are between 42,000 and 39,000 years old) used to regularly eat freshwater fish. Most of the people of that time lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and moved around a lot, but their permanent settlements shelled out garbage dumps, discarded fish bones, and cave paintings that show they fished for salt and freshwater fish. Southern France has caves and rock art over 16,000 years old depicting marine animals and spearfishing with barbed poles (harpoons).
The first forms of the main fishing methods began to appear in the Neolithic between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. For instance, One of the earliest fishing hooks was the hook used by Native Americans off the California coast between 7,500 and 3,000 years ago. Some other tribes used plant toxins to numb fish and catch them easily. Harappans (people who lived during the Bronze Age at the site of the current archaeological site in Punjab, eastern Pakistan) used one of the earliest bronze harpoons.
Ancient Egypt, as we know, was on the Nile and heavily depended on it for its fish. The fishing methods used in the Nile are shown on the walls of the tombs, in drawings, and in documents on papyri. The ancient Egyptians fished in small reed boats for Nile perch, catfish, and eels, and used woven nets, weir baskets, harpoons, and hooks to catch them. The first metal barbed hooks appeared during the 12th dynasty.
The ancient Greeks considered fishermen of very low status, which is why they rarely depicted them in art. Despite this, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a Greek wine glass from 500 BC that shows a boy crouching on a rock with a fishing rod in hand and a fish trap in the water below. of the. Basically, all civilizations that lived near water developed some forms of fishing and depended to some extent on fish as part of their diet.
It is not known when commercial fishing began, but the characteristic thing was that it used types of fishing that allowed a larger catch. To do that, fishermen used gillnets that had been around since ancient times. They were used in the Middle East, North America, and elsewhere and are still used in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska. The first fishermen used nets near the coast, but with improvements in navigation and communication devices, the mobility of fishing boats increased greatly and they began to conquer the oceans. In addition to fish, commercial fishermen’s catch is sea cucumbers (called “trepanning”) for markets in southern China and the rest of Southeast Asia (used there as flavor enhancers and aphrodisiacs).
Except primarily for food, fishing is used as a recreational activity. The first mention of recreational fishing dates from the 15th century and comes from the essay “Treaty of Fysshynge with an angle”, by Mrs. Juliana Berners, prioress of the Benedictine Sopwell convent. This type of fishing became popular during the 16th and 17th centuries and was carried out in rivers and lakes. When the first motorboats appeared in the 19th century, sport fishing became popular. Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, an early marine biologist, and conservationist is considered an inventor of this branch of fishing.
Fishing is still popular today, as a sport and as part of the economy of some countries. FAO statistics put the total number of fishers and aquaculturists at around 38 million.
Fishing History
As with hunting, the history of fishing brings us back to the foundations of our evolution.
To feed and subsist, man learned to gather, hunt and fish.
The history of fishing in the neolithic era
During this long evolution, he first tried to catch fish by hand.
During this period, he ate fish only when the opportunity presented itself.
Fishing as a nurturing activity came later, during prehistoric times, to the Upper Paleolithic era. Man has now evolved, he hunts and fishes on sight.
From this period, some old fishing tools have been found. Notched points, cut in flint and then in the bone which armed the first spears.
These weapons then give way to real harpoons made of bone or reindeer antlers.
Prehistoric harpoons made of reindeer antler photo Kadath
The practice of these primary techniques continued for a very long time in some tribes.
Then came the moment when the technique of fishing separated forever from that of hunting.
Man no longer strikes on sight. It seeks to attract its prey with bait. Some 16,000 years BC, man invented the fishing line.
We are in the Neolithic era, the hook makes its appearance.
The very rudimentary first lines consist of lianas, roots, or horsehair and integrate into their extension the first rudiments of hooks which turn out to be a simple stick of wood or bone.
With the age of polished stone, the hook turns into a hook. It is carved or worked in ivory bone or in wood. Then under the age of metals a little before our era and before JC, the man shapes the bronze. He made his first metal hooks which now look like ours. The advent of iron will then bring the necessary resistance.
bronze age hooks
History seems to grant the Egyptians the invention of the fishing rod in 2000 BC. They would also be at the origin of the first nets.
Later, the Greeks in turn revolutionized fishing. They will be the first to fish with the handled dead to catch groupers in the Aegean Sea.
The first artificial fly appears in writings for the first time in the 3rd century. The Roman writer Claudius Aelianus mentions it after seeing Macedonian fishermen wrap a cut horn hook with scarlet wool and rooster feathers to lure and catch fish.
Subsequently, fishing as a subsistence activity gradually becomes a commercial and then a leisure activity.
In Europe, the first fishing treaty “Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle” was printed in 1496 in England. It lists fish, fishing gear, bait, techniques, and even a few flies.
In 1653 the English author Izacc Walton published “The Compleat Angler, or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation”, a collection of tips and tricks aimed at facilitating recreational fishing.
In 1669 Colbert wrote an ordinance in France regulating fishing activities around watercourses in order to preserve the resource.
During the revolution, the abolition of the exclusive right to fishing in January 1793 led to the plundering of rivers and ponds. The law of May 4, 1802, restores to the public domain the exclusive right to fish in navigable rivers and an opinion of the Council of State of 1805 gives back to owners the right to fish in non-navigable rivers.
The law of April 15, 1829, regulates the rights of use, establishes the function of fishery guard, regulates the fishing equipment, the size, and the species caught.
The first rod of the so-called modern era in split bamboo is attributed to Samuel PHILIPPE in 1860. This innovative technique was a mini-revolution in recreational fishing.
In the twentieth century the technical progress of the industrial era, make fishing evolve. The built-in drag reel was invented in 1913 and the fixed spool reel in 1930.
Nylon was invented in 1942 by Dupont de Nemours.
Materials are modernized and we see the appearance of steel or aluminum rods (Duralumin), materials which will very quickly be replaced by fiberglass.
The fiberglass cane was imagined by Dr. Arthur M HOWALD, an American, who after breaking the tip of his cane had the idea to make a fiberglass one linked with resin.
It is to a French Mr. DUBOIS to whom we owe the first hollow fiberglass rod. His invention later allowed the design of telescopic rods.
Carbon rods are democratized later in the early 90s by taking advantage of technological advances in aerospace. A material that combines flexibility, lightness, and resistance.
Nowadays manufacturers mix different materials and give rods specific applications for different fishing techniques. (Suddenly, bolognese, bomblet, English, fake, fly, launch, support, jig, surfcasting, train, etc.)
History Of Fishing Reels
The fishing reel is a device that is part of a fishing rod. Its function is to roll up and save a line. The reels are used in angling and competitive fishing.
Fishing reels first appeared in China. The text “Lives of famous immortals” from the 4th century has the first mention of a fishing reel.
Ma Yuan, a Chinese painter from the Song Dynasty, painted a painting in 1195 called “Fisherman on a Winter Lake” that depicts a fisherman in a boat using a fishing rod with a reel. Wu Zhen (1280-1354), another Chinese painter who lived between 1280 and 1354, painted rod and reel fishing in his paintings.
An Armenian parchment from the 13th century also shows a fishing reel. The Chinese encyclopedia Sancai Tuhui (“Collected Illustrations of the Three Kingdoms”) that appeared in the early 17th century has the first detailed drawing of fishing reels that even shows the reel pulley. 
People began sport fishing as a recreation in England in the 15th century, but fishermen at that time did not use reels. The first fishing reels in Europe appeared in England in the mid-17th century.
That was a time when fishing became popular with gentlemen. The Great Fire of London in 1666 moved all the artisans who made the fishing tackle to Redditch, which has since become an industrial center making products and equipment for fishing. In 1761, Onesimus Ustonson opened his shop there. Later he will be credited with the invention of the fishing reel. Whether he invented it or not, he was the first to sell it.
The first spools had a small diameter and the gears that drive the mechanism were made of brass, so they wore out quickly. The next model appeared relatively quickly, near the end of the 18th century. 
It was a so-called ” Nottingham reel ” which had a wider diameter and was freely wound. The multiplier reel was invented in the 19th century, a reel that has a ratio of up to 3: 1 (three turns of the main drum to one turn of handle) but was not very popular in Britain. George Snyder of Paris, Kentucky modified this roll in 1810 and began selling it in the United States, where it was much more successful.
This was the first bait reel. The next improvement appeared in 1880 when the silk line appeared and replaced the line made of horsehair. The silk line allowed for a much greater casting distance, but because of that, the fishermen needed more lines on the reel.
Charles F. Orvis from the USA invented the first fully modern reel as we know it today in 1874.
Albert Holden Illingworth, 1st Baron Illingworth, British businessman, and politician, invented the modern form of the fixed reel spinning reel in 1905.
His invention of a line capture restricted and rewound a line when it aired. This allowed much lighter lures to be cast because the line was not pulling a spinning reel.
Conclusion:
The history of fishing
Food necessity in Prehistory, fishing has become an object of commerce since Antiquity. Deep-sea fishing, which began in the 15th century, took off with the appearance of steamboats in the 19th century. The trawlers, more powerful, drag larger nets. Recreational fishing, devolved to the well-to-do classes from the 18th century, became more democratic as technological advances allowed the production of more efficient equipment at a lower cost.
History of fishing practices
The Homo habilis and then the Homo erectus seems to be the first fishermen, some 500,000 years ago, according to the interpretation of the fossilized remains of fish found during archaeological excavations. However, fishing would have really developed during the Upper Paleolithic, between 40,000 and 10,000 years BCE after the appearance of Homo sapiens. Little is known about the different fishing practices. Subsistence fishing at that time would be reduced to a ‘harvest’ of fish by hand or by means of rudimentary tools made of organic materials which we no longer trace.
It would have been practiced mainly by populations established near the plans and rivers. The spear, net, line, and cane seem to appear in Egypt around 3500 BCE, almost simultaneously. Subsistence fishing has changed little over the centuries and certain techniques are still found in the West in recreational fishing today.
During Greco-Roman Antiquity, fishing was the main subject of Halieutika by the poet Oppien of Corycos, the first treatise that has come down to us on sea fishing. The Romans are great consumers and traders of the resources of the Mediterranean basin. They mainly fish with different types of nets. Not yet knowing refrigeration, uneaten fish quickly is fermented and made into garum, a popular condiment.
During the European Middle Ages, the lords were the masters of the waters. Fishing in rivers, highly regulated, is allowed to religious communities whose diet is punctuated by lean periods. However, from the mid 11 century France, the construction of ponds grows, foreshadowing an early fish.
Since the 15 century, fishing high seas and the fish trade are expanding. The Dutch form fleets of herring boats which, dragging along driftnet, can remain at sea for weeks on end. They are supplied by ventjagers , cargo boats which also collect the catches.
The first trawlers appeared in Britain in the 17 century, but trawling takes off from the 19 century with the abandonment of the sails for the benefit of the steam engine. Boats are getting bigger and more powerful, allowing large nets to be dragged in deep water. Trade-in seafood is increasing. Grimsby, a small English town, became one of the largest commercial fishing centers in Europe and was linked to the Billingsgate Fish Market (the largest fish market in the world at that time) in London by a direct route from the railroad.
During the two world conflicts, some trawlers were adapted for underwater mine fishing and armed to protect the fishing fleet from enemy vessels.
As for the fishing recreation, including fishing in the fly, it is first devoted to the well-off from the 18 century. It is democratized as technological advances allow the production of more efficient equipment at a lower cost. To satisfy fishermen, exogenous species have even been introduced in certain regions, as was the case for trout in Australia.
