Bronze Hooks
It has been roughly estimated that copper came into use around 4000 BC, followed by the gradual development of bronze. Among the oldest civilizations, in which copper was utilized, were those along the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, rivers abounding in fish and with enormous volumes of water. Numerous finds have been made in this area of copper hooks that are half a thousand years older than Abraham's Mesopotamia (around 1,800 BC). Crete is renowned for especially rich finds of bronze hooks, closely followed by Italy. The bronze hooks that have been dug up at Pompeii and Herculaneum are very beautiful and clearly masterpieces of craftsmanship.

On the threshold of classical antiquity, fish culture began to assume the forms we would recognize today. In ancient Mesopotamia the art of breeding fish in ponds was already known. The fish offered for sale were dried, salted or smoked. Commercial fisheries developed throughout the Middle East and in the Mediterranean countries. In the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, the trade in salted fish made up a considerable part of the ships' traffic in the bustling Roman port of Ostia. The Epicureans of the time, who were worshippers of "a luxurious life", were experts at preparing fish delicacies. They built ruinously expensive cisterns in which to keep noble varieties of live fish.

Gradually, a clearer distinction began to be made between those who indulged in fishing as a sport and fishing as a livelihood. In a picture of an angler -- obviously a wealthy man from Thebes (probably around 1,400 BC) a butterfly-like insect has been drawn with symbolic clarity, leaving one to suspect that fly fishing had begun. The Emperors Augustus and Trajan were among the amateur fishermen of Rome.

This is considered to be the oldest picture of angling. The Egyptian fishermen here are using rods as well as lines, and may be equipped with a spinner or a plug for casting, c. 2,000 BC (from P. E. Newsberry, Ben Hasan).

The transition from wood, shell and bone to bronze, iron and steel was not without consequences. The old, basic types of hooks recur, but from now on the shapes become freer, depending partly on the way the metal had been worked. Iron hooks were often bigger than bronze hooks, a natural development because boats were stronger and could better be used on the open sea. Norwegian fishermen ventured far out at sea even during the Stone Age.

The making of fish hooks was gradually left to specialists. The discovery of tools in burial mounds reveals that even before the Vikings much of the finer wrought iron work was done by professional blacksmiths. There were still many home-made hooks, of course. In fact, in remote areas people have continued to make their own hooks right up to the present time. But, this is rare and, as the centuries passed, the commercial fisherman tended to leave the job of making good hooks to the professional blacksmith. Around the end of the Middle Ages it may be assumed that professional hook-makers were at work far and wide, at least in the coastal centres where fishermen did their buying and selling.

Steel Hooks
In principle the men of the Iron Age were already familiar with the art of making steel from bog iron. But not all iron can be tempered into steel. Good-quality steel was scarce. Down through the Middle Ages, and long after, the quality of steel was very uneven, and good steel was very expensive as well.

No one really knows how early professional hook makers started working with good-quality steel. According to British angling literature, there were at least excellent professional hook makers around during the 1600s.

The hook on the left was found during the excavation of the Gokstad Viking ship in Vestfold County, Norway (10th century). The hook on the right is one of the poorly preserved hooks from Risøya, southern Norway (possibly 7th century). All the Risøya hooks seem to have had an eye, not a flat.