I'm writing a fantasy story, and I need some help. Although my setting is similar to Graeco-Roman Antiquity in terms of culture, in terms of everyday technology, most of the civilised world is parallel to about 900-1000 AD in our world.
I've read around on the history of fishing and come up with a lot of sources. Most of them are about historical fishing as a means of food-gathering, which is helpful for some aspects of my story, but I want to find out more about fishing as a hobby.
Many of the sources refer to fishing rods and hooks very early on (x000 BC), but also independently state that the reel developed much later (in medieval times). Do I take this to mean that a fishing rod would merely consist of a long rod with a line tied to the end? (And a hook, obviously.)
None of the sources I've found confront this issue; how were the line and rod actually attached? Simply by tieing?
Also, what wood was used for the rods? What line?
(Disclaimer: I've said "ancient" in the title because that's the easiest way of saying "before medieval times" so as to avoid inventions like the reel. Anything from Roman to Anglo-Saxon era fishing techniques will do, really; I just want to know anything I can.)
Many thanks in advance for any help!
EDIT: Also, exactly how would one cast the line into the water? And how would you drag the fish back to shore when it's caught?
Well, I can't say anything about "ancient" fishing. But Dame Juliana Berners, the probable author of the 15th c. Treatyse of Fisshynge with an Angle had some medieval instructions, and they would have worked for even earlier times- anyone who could forge a needle could forge a fishhook.
She recommended first a staff of hazel,willow, or ash, cut between September and February. The length was a fathom and a half ( about 9 feet) and the butt about as big as a man's upper arm- so pretty stout- which was then dried ( she says, in the chimney or smoke in the roof of the house). It was then shaved to lighten it, and the center bored for the croppe. The croppe was another two sections, the bottom from green hazel, the top from blackthorn, willow or juniper. The croppe pieces were assembled with metal ferrules, the whole croppe then fitted into the top end of the staff, making a rod of about 18 feet.
The line was several hairs from a horsetail, tied end to end, and tied to the tip of the croppe. At the tip of the line was a loop, to which other horsehair line could be tied, or a hook. Silk seems to have been used for reinforcement of the knots. If this sounds a little heavy, it must have been. At the butt of the staff, however, was a spike. This was driven into the ground to provide a little leverage.
Retrieving was of course not as easy as with a modern reel, but long rods without reels are sometimes still used on the canals and rivers of Europe - and similar "cane poles" in Arkansas and the southern US. Drop the bait ( Berners indicates tied artificial flies or lures were used) into the water, drive the butt end into the ground, brace the pole, and wait. When a fish gets hooked ( and really, with all that mass of pole, it's hard to imagine an angler moving it, actually hooking the fish himself) the pole is simply worked back, hand over hand, until the fish can be gotten off the line. Or, if the fish is small the pole can be lifted and the fish swung back towards shore. The modern European rods are also, interestingly, in sections, and retrieving can often be done by disassembling the rod, section by section, until the tip section can be grasped and the fish pulled in. Perhaps Berners' giant pole could have been handled the same?
I am not sure when something pliable and light began to be used for a pole, but John Dennys' Secrets of Angling of 1613 indicates something much lighter- and still without a reel.
It would be worth x-posting this so that more archaeologists and/or anthropologists see this. Consider /r/AskAnthropology, or /r/Archaeology