Backcountry Notes

NOTES ON THE HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF LONG-ROD FISHING

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Everywhere in the world, it seems, humans developed rustic methods of fishing that are very similar among cultures - - trapping, spearing, and angling.  Fish hooks and gorges are known from the dawn of modern man.  I strongly suspect that all it took, in any human culture, to inspire angling with rod and line was the coincidence of four factors: a long, limber pole; a length of twine or some workable substitute; a piece of bone formed into a hook suitable for catching fish; and a five-year-old boy with a strong desire to reach out and catch one.

When I was a lad, my parents removed to the Tidewater of Virginia, where there were a goodly number of municipal water-supply lakes that held bass, bream, catfish and carp.  I recall that there were two brothers who were locally famous for their ability to catch big bass in these lakes using cane poles.  They fished in late February and March, when the largemouth bass moved out of their winter holes and took up residence in brushy areas near the bank to lie in wait for minnows, frogs, and such, to build up strength in preparation for the spring spawn.  One March day, the brothers came ashore at Lake Smith in Norfolk with a catch that included four 10-pound to 12-pound largemouth bass, all caught on cane poles.  Here is how they did it.

They used an ancient technique called "jigging," which employs a long cane pole (13 to 16 feet) and a free line about one-third to one-half half as long as the pole, with a #2 or larger sproat hook knotted on at the end.  To the hook they attached a large, 4-inch to 6-inch golden shiner, an active, flashy bait fish.  While one brother quietly paddled the john boat parallel to the shore, the other dunked the shiner gently into every likely pocket in the brush line.  At this time of the season, largemouth bass will not hit on topwater lures, but they are on the lookout for shiners and will take the bait just under the surface will a strong roll.  The ensuing fight is won or lost very quickly; if the bass gets back into the brush before the angler can turn him into open water, he's likely to escape.  Anglers using the "jigging" technique have been known to brace up their rig with 45-pound-test line.

Cane-pole jigging, while a rare technique these days, is still practiced in some areas, including Kentucky where the favored bait is a gob of live nightcrawlers on a treble hook.  For a detailed description of this method, see Winter Fishing For Big Bass.

We are indebted to Pennsylvania-born naturalist William Bartram (1739-1823) for an excellent description William Bartramof Native American long-rod angling - - fishing “the bob.” In 1773, Bartram embarked on a four-year journey through the southern colonies, making excellent drawings and taking detailed notes on the native flora and fauna while befriending the Native Americans. In 1774, Bartram was dubbed "Puc-puggee," "the flower hunter,” by Ahaya the Cowkeeper, chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe in Florida. Subsequently Bartram published “Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc.,” one of the most important books in the field of American natural history. By happy circumstance, the book included this description of Native Americans fishing in Florida:

Two people are in a little canoe, one sitting in the stern to steer, and the other near the bow, having a rod ten or twelve feet in length, to one end of which is tied a string line, about twenty inches in length, to which is fastened three large hooks, back to back. These are fixed very securely, and tied with the white hair of a deer’s tail, shreds of a red garter, and some parti-colored feathers, all which form a tuft or tassel nearly as large as one’s fist, and entirely cover and conceal the hooks; that are called a “bob.” The steersman paddles softly, and proceeds slowly along shore; he now ingeniously swings the bob backwards and forwards, just above the surface and sometimes tips the water with it, when the unfortunate cheated trout (sic; largemouth bass) instantly springs from under the reeds and seizes the exposed prey.

Considering the size of Florida largemouth bass, this must have been a pulse-quickening way to catch dinner.  There is an obvious parallel to fishing the bob and the traditional European technique of dapping. Both methods require a stealthy approach and a long fishing pole and play a lure or fly along the top of the water. But while dapping for wary trout requires a delicate presentation, bob-fishing tends to reward a splashy and showy style.  The latter soon evolved into a technique variously known as "jigger-poling," "doodlesocking," or "skittering."

As I described in Long-rod Fishing In The Early Backcountry, the jigger pole was used to maneuver or skitter a large bait or lure in and around likely cover, usually seeking largemouth bass, and was often used at night.  "Doodlesocking" still survives in areas of the South and its use in Arkansas has been described in Doodlesockin’ - legal in all 50 states ... maybe:

[O]utdoors writer Jim Spencer, formerly of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, noted in one of his writings [that] he had heard of a bass fisherman who caught fish this way back in the 1860s on the White River. Spencer . . . speculated that the method we know as doodlesockin’ may have originated with the Native Americans long before white man set foot in what is now Arkansas.

Doodlesockin’ includes a short piece of nylon trotline staging, usually a topwater bait, a nice and sturdy cane pole and the burning desire to have your arm jerked out of socket. Remember to tie the trotline staging about halfway back toward the pole’s handle, then wrap it around toward the smaller end and put a knot there to keep the line taut. With the line going so far back up the pole, if the pole tip breaks under the force of a largemouth bass’ strike, there is still a chance of getting the fish to the boat. [Doodlesockers use] Heddon Lucky 13s, Cotton Cordell Big Os, buzzbaits and other lures. [S]ome doodlesockers will also use plastic worms, crankbaits, spinnerbaits or other lures.

Apparently, the idea behind doodlesockin’ is one of infuriating the fish into striking. The bait is worked back and forth, sometimes in figure 8s, through a likely looking spot along and around buckbrush, a log, a cypress tree, a stump or whatever cover seems to be holding the fish. Sometimes, the angler will even hit the water with the end of the pole to create even more of a ruckus.

During the 19th Century, two men made important contributions to the development of the sport of bass J A Henshallfishing.  One was Backcountry watchmaker George Snyder of Paris, Kentucky, who made innovative bait-casting reels beginning around 1810.  The other was Dr. James A. Henshall, who published the "Book Of The Black Bass" in 1881.  Henshall's book was the first to detail tackle and methods for bass fishing and is regarded as an American sport fishing classic.  Henshall included a chapter on "Skittering and Bobbing," in which he wrote:

SKITTERING is best practiced with a long and light natural cane rod from twelve to fifteen feet long and a strong line of nearly the same length. No reel is used for, like bobbing, this mode of fishing is only successful in grassy and weedy situations where the water is comparatively shallow, notably in the lagoons and bayous of the extreme South, and where the fish must be landed as soon as possible after being hooked. To the end of the line is attached a small trout spoon or the skittering spoon which is still smaller being the smallest revolving [spinner] made.

The modus operandi is as follows: The angler stands in the bow of the boat, which is paddled or poled by the boatman as noiselessly as possible, just outside of or along the channels of clear water among the patches of rushes lily pads or bonnets. The angler by means of the long rod and short line skitters or skips the spoon along the surface of the water with a jerky or vibratory motion, causing it to spin and glance close up to the edges of the weeds, where it is viciously seized by the Bass, who has been lying in wait among the water lettuce or under the broad pads of the water lily for just such an opportunity.

The angler has now no time to lose, but must rapidly draw the Bass along the surface of the water to the boat, into which he must be lifted at once for he is as good as gone if he gets below the surface among the weeds; nor must the Bass be allowed to leap into the air with so short a line, but he must be dragged quickly along the surface with his head above the the water, until the line can be taken hold of close to the hook, or the finger hooked in the gill opening and the fish dextrously lifted over the side of the boat.

Henshall cites Bartram’s description of “bobbing,” remarking that “it is just as effective today as it was then.”

Although solid cane rods persisted into the 20th century, the 19th century had seen the development of split-bamboo casting rods and fly rods, and these eventually came to dominate the sport-fishing market.  Around 1800, there was no meaningful distinction between fly-casting and bait-casting rods (or reels, for that matter); as years passed, fly rods began to be made with the reel seat at the butt end of the handle, while bait-casting rods kept the reel seat higher.  After the publication of Henshall's "Black Bass" in 1881, bait-casting rods became popular in lengths shorter than the standard 10- to 12-foot poles; the Henshall bass rod made by Thomas Chubb (shown in the advertisement) was 8'3" long.  As the craft of building split-cane rods improved, fly rods also shortened, to a range of 7 to 9 feet for most split-cane rods.

The words "bamboo" and "cane" are interchangeable when describing fishing poles.  Through the middle of the 20th century, fly rods made of this material were typically called "split-bamboo" rods; presently the term "split-cane" is the popular choice.  In either case, the word refers to one of the fast-growing, woody grasses of the Poaceae family (true grasses), subfamily Bambusoideae.  In cross-section, these grasses typically have four layers: a hard, outer carapace; a layer of papery growth; a layer of long, tough fibers; and the innermost layer of soft pith, which is as thick or thicker than the three thin outer layers combined.  The layer of long fibers and the thick layer of pith combine the virtues of flexibility, durability, and damping of vibrations.  Because the two outermost layers serve no function in split-cane rods, the rod-maker removes them when cutting and planing the pieces.

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Sidebar: THE "HATTERAS HEAVER"

There are many odd applications of bamboo or cane in the history of fishing, with rod lengths ranging from two feet (for ice fishing) to more than 20 feet; but nothing quite equals the "Hatteras Heaver" surf-fishing rod.  Made from native Carolina cane, Heavers were one-piece rods of middling length, running from 9 to 12 feet, but were cut from canes which could have made much longer poles, so that they were very stout with no flex.  Hatteras Heavers were made from the late 19th century until the middle of the 20th century and were named for Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where they were very popular prior to the advent of the fiberglass rods which displaced them after World War II, and were used along the Carolinas and Georgia coasts for fishing in the surf off of sandy beaches.

The Hatteras Heaver was constructed by adding a large-diameter tip-top to the smaller end of the cane and wrapping on several heavy-duty guides along the top half of the pole.  Usually, there was no reel seat, as such; the reel was held on by numerous wraps of electrician's tape or screw-band hose clamps or both.  Prior to WWII, the reel was always a large, saltwater bait-casting reel with a free-spool setting; after the war, heavy-duty spinning reels also were used.  The reel was spooled with a running line as light as conditions and the size of the fish would warrant, with 20- to 30-pound-test being typical.  To the running line the surfcaster attached a shock leader with a test of 100 to 150 pounds, the leader being long enough to take two winds around the spool of the reel while leaving a free end beyond the tip as long as the caster could handle, from 6 to 12 feet. 

At the end of the shock leader, the angler added a lead weight of 6 to 10 ounces - - huge, even by surfcasting standards.  A length of wire leader was knotted onto the shock leader above the weight, or tied directly to the weight, with an appropriately-large hook tied to the free end.  The typical baits for Hatteras Heaver casters were a strip of mullet, skin-on, which would be hooked through several times so as to be threaded over the hook and somewhat onto the leader, or the head of a bait fish hooked through the bony structure.

Because the Hatteras Heaver had no action, it was neither profitable nor safe to use the standard overhead cast.  Instead, the angler used a sidearm "pendulum" type of cast in which the weight was swung out low and behind the caster, to a point where the leader formed a straight line between the weight and the reel.  The angler then swung the lead weight around in a smooth, slightly upswinging arc, steadily accelerating, swiveling from his hips while keeping his arms fully extended, and then releasing the line as the weight neared the direction in which the cast was to go.  When a properly-made cast is released, the weight shoots seaward in a long arc, pulling the leader and running line behind it.

An experienced surfcaster using a Hatteras Heaver can throw the weight the length of a football field, end zones included.  I have seen these cane rods in the hands of experts - - there were still a handful of die-hards using them on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the 1960s - - and will testify under oath that a cast well-executed with a Hatteras Heaver is a thing of awesome beauty.

There are faux Hatteras Heavers on the modern market, made of fiberglass, and while these are fine rods in their own right, they have a flex to them and the guides are so small that they do not permit the proper execution of the cast described above.

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Modern rods made of plastic materials have almost entirely displaced solid-bamboo poles.  There is no question that the advent of split-bamboo and then plastic fly rods enabled the angler to fish far and fine.  The development of spinning and spin-casting reels, which came to America with GIs returning from France after WWII, opened up long casts the the multitudes.  Long, solid wood rods are now artifacts of the past, and the cane pole, while it still exists, is used primarily for still-fishing with bait.  Yet there remain a few die-hards and nostalgics who insist on handicapping themselves with such relics and spending a few hours now and then fishing in a manner which Izaak Walton would find quite familiar.