Fishing Rods: (Part Two)

A few years ago, a large book store chain was selling a new edition of Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler" at a greatly reduced price. Not having a copy of this highly revered work of the year 1676, I forked out the four bucks and purchased it. So it seems did a few of my friends and relatives who wrapped up their carefully chosen Christmas gift and placed it under the tree with my name on the card. I ended up with I can't remember how many copies of "The Compleat Angler" that Christmas! As well, I knew how much my dear friends and relatives had spent on me!

Although on several occasions I have picked up my sole remaining copy (the others were donated to the local Good Will or something like that), I have only been able to scan the work. I cannot seem to be able to really read the book, and I'm sure most of us 20th century anglers would prefer to read Haig-Brown or Jorgensen than a book written before the English language was modernized.

I believe that most people have not read the book at all, even those who claim to have read it must not have comprehended it. You see, Izaak Walton is considered the "Father of Fly Fishing." This consideration of him is, in my opinion, wrong. It is quite humorous in a way to see how "fly only" fishermen attempt to identify themselves with this author and his book, and join organizations bearing his name, and then attempt to convince themselves that they are the "purists" among anglers, using only bits of hair and feather to entice a fish.

One of the keys to Walton's work is the title itself, The Compleat (no, this is not some Latin word meaning fly fishing only, it is the same as "complete") Angler. From my brief periods of flipping through the pages, I found more references to the hero teaching his students how to locate, collect and use as bait, such things as worms and minnows. Now I know this may come as a shock to many of you "purists" out there, but it seems Walton certainly believed that the complete angler should know all sorts of ways to catch fish. The whole point of fishing was to catch fish any way you could and to enjoy the activity.

Now, perhaps there is a reason for all this. In Walton's day, a fishing rod was basically a very long stick or piece of wood, carefully selected, and often weighing up to 20 pounds! It was very heavy and probably did not lend itself much to delicacy in casting a tiny #16 dry fly. You can only imagine, Mr. Walton on his favorite river, using this long heavy stick to make all those false casts we love so much. Graceful? Ha. After an hour of that kind of fishing, of course, he would want to just bait his hook with a worm, throw it in the water, and grab an ice pack for his shoulder. He would have to spend the rest of his day fishing while sitting on the river bank under the Hickory tree from where his fishing rod stick was taken, contemplating perhaps a pub lunch and ale later on.

Most of the early rods used for fishing were long sticks. However, it is known that back in the 17th century there were craftsmen who designed and built fishing rods. The requirements for a rod were not that different from today. It had to flex just right, light but strong woods were desired, and in fact many were hollowed out using a hot wire. Often, 2 piece rods were made using ingenious ferrule systems, and if the rod had been hollowed out, the butt or lower section was used to store the tip section. You must remember that reels had not yet been invented, and in most cases, line made from horse hair was simply tied on to the tip. Guides or rings for the line were not used. When a fish was caught, it was lifted, with both hands on the rod, onto the shore. Because the line was tied to the tip, it would have been rather difficult to cast any distance therefore, rod lengths became longer out of necessity, often 19 to 21 feet.

Many of the woods used included ash, chestnut, oak, elder, hazel, and greenheart. The ferrule systems that were developed allowed rod builders to use different types of wood in one rod for a particular action desired. Generally, the heavier woods were used in the butt sections.

Greenheart, a tree grown in South America, became one of the most popular types of wood for rod making. Because it is so dense, it is very heavy and one of the strongest woods known. It resists decay and was often used in marine building applications such as ships and bridges, especially in Europe. One of the most important reasons for using this wood was the ability to cut it down to a very fine diameter at the tip. Although we usually associate split cane with the material of choice for rods up until the time fiberglass became dominant, it is interesting to note that Hardy continued to make rods from Greenheart, often in conjunction with bamboo, right up until the 1960'[s.

I am not sure if it is still possible to purchase greenheart cut to rod specifications, however, I do know that up until about 10 years ago, it was available in Ontario. If anyone knows of a source of greenheart, please drop me a line. I would love to build a rod with this wood someday.