This is nothing new but I decided to research a little about the actual age of our sport. Knowing the ingenuity of the ancient Romans I just could not imagine them not copying or inventing ingenious ways of fishing.
Fish was an important staple of their diet but beyond that the Romans enjoyed sport for leisure. They especially enjoyed blood sport and fly fishing is a blood sport. Actually it is a very challenging blood sport and that would have appealed to the ancient Romans even more.
Well I am only one day into this and guess what? Yep, I am already reading about Homer recording that the ancient Romans “Fished with flies”. Interesting. I cannot read any further tonight as it is getting late here so I will resume this in the morning.
What I would like to know is if you folks can help me out here? Sort of engage in a cyber conversation of sharing of information. I value the many communications and sharing that all have done with me here at FAOL. If anyone can recommend some good old fashioned ink and paper books about the Ancient Greeks and Romans fly fishing I would appreciate it. Actually any books about the past eras, not modern, of our sport that anyone can recommend would be great.
Please feel free to jump in here and post your thoughts, suggestions, tips and or ideas.
Erik, homer was a Greek and considerably predated the Roman empire. For a good intro to the history of fly fishing check here: http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/
Max Garth of Australia while conducting research into the history of saltwater fly fishing found that in China they were fly fishing and using reels like we are using today, the image he found showed that this was 2500 years ago.
The origins of fly tying date to the 1st and 2nd century BC in Macedonia, where brown trout anglers attached feathers to their hooks to imitate the insect life it the streams.
The above I took from the article Liz wrote about “what is Hackle” Located on FAOL and on our web site under Articles.
I do not know where she came up with this info, will ask her when I next talk with her. I do know she did some intensive research on the subject.
From De Animalium Natura by Aelian as translated by O. Lambert and quoted in Fishing From the Earliest Times by William Radcliffe
I’m not going to type out the whole passage but you’ll get the idea
I have heard of a Macedonian way of catching fish…fish with speckled skins…These fish feed on a fly peculiar to the country…When the fish observes a fly on the surface, it swims quietly up, afraid to stir the water above, lest it should scare away its prey; then coming up by its shadow, it opens its mouth gently and gulps down the fly, like a wolf carrying off a sheep from the fold…Now though the fisherman know of this, they do not use these flies for bait, for if a man’s hands touch them…become unfit for food…
They fasten red (crimson red) wool round a hook , and fix on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s waddles and which in colour are like wax. Their rod is six feet long and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour, come straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to get a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens it’e jaws it is caught by the hook and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive
An even earlier quote by the Roman poet Martial which may or may not be translated correctly
Who has not seen the scarus rise,
Decoyed, and killed by fraudful flies ?
There is evidence of Egyptian and Chinese ‘flyfishing’ that is even earlier
Wow! Thanks folks! I started this out as a reading project and one thing lead to another. I think the author of the quote about Homer and the Romans may have mistakenly said Romans instead of Greeks. More likely I read it wrong.
For some reason I did not really think of the Romans approaching fly fishing from a philosophical point of view. Guess that is because most of my studies of them have been from a military point of study. Thanks, J.C., for reminding me of that.
Along the lines of what Denny and Liz have found out I also found a little bit about the Egyptians. It makes sense to me that the Mesopotamian, Macedonian and Chinese civilizations were fly fishers too. They had some of the best engineers ever.
It’s going to be interesting to see the mechanics of how they went about fly fishing too. For instances: Did they use rods or poles? If so did they use them in the same manner as we do or were they more like one of our “Crappie Poles” with a fixed length of line? Perhaps they only tossed hand lines instead of using poles or perhaps both. What were their lines made of? Silk, flax, horse hair, gut? Did they use floatant (I suspect that they did) or were they strictly wet and nymphs?
One thing about this quest I have started on, it is humbling to our modern civilization. Indeed, a lot of the things that we claim to have invented were just reinventions or updates from a bygone era. Sure we have a lot of firsts that our modern civilization has achieved but we have also “reinvented the wheel” a lot! Humbling, very humbling indeed.
I love all of the responses! Thanks folks. Denny, I also think this will be a very interesting post.
It’s going to be interesting to see the mechanics of how they went about fly fishing too. For instances: Did they use rods or poles? If so did they use them in the same manner as we do or were they more like one of our “Crappie Poles” with a fixed length of line? Perhaps they only tossed hand lines instead of using poles or perhaps both
Casting a line, the most important innovation ever in fly fishing, didn’t happen until the advent of the spilt cane rod. In the mid 1800s
Quote “Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.”.
This is in reference to the ancient Macedonian style of fly fishing. To me, arguably, that is casting. To be sure, it is not casting in the more modern manner that you and I cast however, I do believe it is casting. At least somewhat similar to the way we cast with a Crappie Pole like this one:
The fact that Aelian wrote about it in detail as something exotic makes it unlikely that the Romans themselves fly fished. Of course, he could have been a city boy.
To me, arguably, that is casting.
Before the split cane rod the angler only could lob out his offering and then rely on the wind and current to deliver it.
There was no accuracy, there was no distance. Dapping would be a better term
True casting came later
Casting has nothing to do with accuracy. Casting, as a verb, is to throw or project something.
Dapping: 1. To fish by letting a baited hook fall gently onto the water. 2. To dip lightly or quickly into water, as a bird does. 3. To skip or bounce, especially over the surface of water.
I do both. To me if you are going to use accuracy, wind and current as criteria then dapping is a form of casting. The literal definition of either does not specify accuracy or distance as a criteria nor reliance on wind or current. That is why I say, again arguably, that dapping is a form of casting. When I use a crappie pole I am more or less flipping the line out to the spot where I want the bait to fall. That is a form of projection. I understand that what most fly anglers call dapping is more like dipping. That is without launching the fly some distance away from the angler through space.
I believe they probably did flip, toss, throw or whatever you want to call it with their setup. To me that fits the definition of casting as a verb related to angling.
