"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:59:41 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:



Stones worked great years ago, and probably work well now. As well as
sparkplugs. We used to use sparkplugs casting into the rocky area of
the
Pacific shoreline as they were cheap and you put them on a dropper and
saved the rest of rig when you snagged. As to the rocks, a few years
ago
when we were traveling in Italy, we went to the fishing museum on Lake
Trasimeno. They had bronze hooks from the Romans as well as weights that
were a worked circle of rocks that were recovered from the lake bottom,
We a really interesting museum. Lake was a large shallow body of water,
that looked nasty. Talked to a couple of guys that had been bass
fishing,
and loading an about 16' Tracker bass boat. Cost them about 2x what
they
cost here. I think the website for the museum is
http://www.museodellapesca.ch/ .


Wrong museo. Probably http://www.museodellapesca.it/


Some years ago when I read a lot about fishing, and had and used an
ultra-light rig for a while, I read about European ultra-light
fishing.
They actually hook and line fish for what we in the U.S. would
consider very small minnows.
Tiny hooks made by watchmakers, and line from spider webs. The "rod"
is the pinky finger, the only thing sensitive enough to feel a "hit"
without getting obscene.
They just rub the hook against material that had contained something
smelly to "bait" it. Fascinating, and quite surprising.

--Vic

They used some large hooks. Those bronze hooks 2000 years old, looked very
good shape and looked like a modern hook in design. They still use
fishtraps of the same design. More modern materials, but same design to
commercially fish.