Old hooks

[Keith Ritter]

I was thinking about retro-fishing. What did we use for hooks before factory-made hooks or when they were not available? Cane poles,string and corks are easy, just need a old-timey hook. Ideas?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Safety pins were common, when machine made hooks were not available. Eyed hooks didnt appear before the middle 1800's Before the machine age, hooks were of wire and sharpened by hand. Before the drawing of wire was possible, hooks were mostly made from hammered steel, and hand worked from there. Roman fishhooks have been found of this style.

Before the Age of Metal, hooks were made of bone, shell, and thorn cuttings. The precursor to all of these was the "gorge."

Thats just a small sharpened stick, tied to the line in the middle. Covered with bait, the fish swallows the whole thing - and the gorge turns sideways in the fish's throat, holding it fast. Catch and Release was not really a big concept to pre-historic man.

[Joe Angelucci]

Funny, I've been researching the same thing since I saw your floats. Colonial hooks were either loose or spade  

snelled wire hooks . The snell was made of gut and the lines were linen. They also used quill or cork floats You can find the items at the site listed below. This will be part of my spring project. They also carry period fly material.

 http://www.historicanglingenterprises.com/

 

[Allen Morgan]

I remember, when I first heard about Circle hooks, that the design has been around for centuries.  Archaeologists had found some actual circle hooks that were made from knapped obsidian (think arrowheads).  I think they were almost 1,000 years old, from Polynesia.

[carl hendrix]

interesting subject on this!!  and allen- you are quite correct!    some of the hooks found were knapped from stone. I happen to have a type of book- on flint knapping;; done some of it.   just have to watch out for flying pieces of stone!!  its not dull!!

[Allen Morgan]

I've seen some instructions on how to knap arrow points from stone, never tried it.  I do remember, once, going to Summer Camp with my Scout Troop.  We had to drive about 50 miles away.  In that time, the geology of the ground changed; at home, bedrock was mostly sandstone, at camp it was a mix of limestone and chert.  The doctor that was running the first aid clinic gave all the incoming Scouts a warning, about being careful when walking, that if you fall on the rocks at home, you'd get a scrape, but here at camp, if you fell on the rocks, you'd get cut.  That Chert is some sharp stuff!

[John Sheehan]

Yes, my mom had me using a safety pin when I was a young boy .

Here's a bad pic of eyeless hooks that had to be tied as snells .Ken Reinard (The Colonial Angler) had a cool booth at a Fly Fishing Expo that I went to a few years ago.

http://bigbluegill.com/photo/p1280707?context=album&albumId=203...

Here's my photo album of the expo: http://bigbluegill.com/photo/albums/fly-fishing-expo-somerset-nj-2012