An earlier post got me wondering about rod building history and for some time I've been curious as to how & when the terms "angler & angling" were first used and how
that term came about. Well, the term "angle" and or "to angle" has been used far longer than I had imagined and the earliest usage that I can find was originally published in 1496! I wonder how many know what an "angle" is? LOL (i didn't but I do now)

The earliest American book on rod making "The Angler's Workshop Rod Making for the Beginner" that I have found was written by Perry D. Frazer and first published in 1908. Perry's second book on the subject "Amateur Rod Making" was first published in 1914.

Thanks to the Gutenberg Project and the Google Books Project many books like these are now available in "public domain" for all to enjoy.

I added a new page to my website The RodBuilder's Library entitled Early Angling Literature and both of the Perry books are posted there as well as some of the earliest publications about angling. Most notible are "The Complete Angler" by Izaak Walton 1593-1683 and "A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle" by Dame Juliana Berners published 1496!

Enjoy!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

"...and thus shall ye make you a rodde soo preuy that ya maye walke therwyth: and there shall noo man wyte where abowtee yee goo. It woll be lyghte and full nymbyll to fysshe with at your luste...."

The 1496 book is FANTASTIC!. Thanks Raymond! If I read this correctly, it took at least a season and a month to make a "rodde" so "lyghte and full nymbyll". Nothing much has changed here in my shop; and my wife would love the idea that "...only a woman could have given such directions for making a rod...".

Steven I do not remember you in my spelling lecture at Woodland LOL. Fre sime uf yea Im netd athi wust sriler har
Good Wraps Bob

Good Wraps Bob