6 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



It seems to be difficult to determine when angling really 

 did not exist, for in the Book of Job we read, "Canst thou 

 draw out leviathan with a hook 1 or his tongue with a cord 

 which thou lettest down 1 Canst thou put an hook into his 

 nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" (By this 

 last word we should presume that hooks were then made of 

 hard wood, or at least some of them.) In the prophet 

 Habakkuk also we find fish being taken " with the angle," 

 and in Isaiah of "those that cast the hook into the 

 river." 



The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Eomans certainly were 

 anglers, for passages from the writings of some of the 

 most ancient authors indicate the fact. Homer tells us, 



" Of beetling rocks that overhang the flood, 

 Where silent anglers cast insidious food, 

 With fraudful care await the finny prize, 

 And sudden lift it quivering to the skies." 



It would thus appear that the tackle used in those days was 

 very strong, or it would not have stood this sudden strain 

 which the lines quoted above would give us to understand 

 occurred. 



(It is of course a familiar sight to see youths just beginning 

 their fishing career, when they have hooked a small fish, 

 heave it out as though their very lives depended on sending 

 it flying into the next meadow.) 



Oppian says also, 



" A bite ! hurrah ! the length'ning line extends, 

 Above the tugging fish the arch'd reed bends, 

 He struggles hard and noble sport will yield, 

 My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field." 



And the ancients, too, were fly-fishers as well as bottom 

 fishers, as the following interesting passage from Julian 

 shows : 



" The Macedonians who live on the banks of the River 

 Astreus are in the habit of catching a particular fish in that 

 river by means of a fly called hippurus. A very singular 

 insect it is ; bold and troublesome like all its kind, in size a 

 hornet, marked like a wasp, and buzzing like a bee. These 



