Fishing

[biddler165]

Re: Fishing

What would the soldiers use as hooks? Would they have used bent sewing needles?

Rick Biddle

[dedogtent]

Re: Fishing

Last year at Fort Delaware on one of our volunteer weekends there was a full time volunteer who was a Confederate prisoner who was fishing out of the moat. We were Yankee guards so we had a great time talking and messing with this Johnny prisoner. He just had an old stick and some string and make a hook out of a primer to the big gun there. Or was it a bent sewing needle, he may have had both. Anyway, this guy was top notch in first person and on that busy day was a giant hit fishing there in that dirty moat with the visitors. I think he caught around 10 fish that day...he was a riot.

[Cfarrell]

Re: Fishing

Rick,

PigPen can answer your question about what they looked like! Right, Danny?

Cody

[ThehosGendar]

Re: Fishing

Here's another one for you, though it doesn't look like he has anything tied onto the end of the stick...

From "Washington, D.C. Georgetown ferry-boat carrying wagons, and Aqueduct Bridge beyond, from rocks on Mason's Island," LC-B811- 291 .

[billwatson]

Re: Fishing

Not with a line but with a seign.

One monster alligator garcam plunging and puffing along - About 20 men attacked him with clubs. They fought him for about 50 yards when one man mounted him with his knife and he was finally killed - He measured 7 feet 2 inches adn weighed 174 pounds.

Captain Elijah P. Petty October 10, 1862.

OK, I take back my earlier comment. THIS has to be the most under-represented impression in reenacting, wrestling an alligator gar.

Who says we never have new challenges? :-) "A dead gar or a stove dinghy."

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/species/alg/alg.htm

[DonSmithnotTMD]

Re: Fishing

ooh -- ya mean like this:

"The headquarters mess of of the 16th Illinois Cavalry had a lavish holiday dinner menu: oyster soup, oysters on the half shell, roast goose, fried oysters, roast oysters, rice, raisins, coffee with condensed milk."
Davis, Burke; Sherman's March: The First Full-length Narrative of General William T. Sherman's Devastating March through Georgia and the Carolinas; Random House; New York; 122

[PigPen]

Re: Fishing

SkilletLicker may have some hand forged fishing hooks left. The trick is learning to tie them so they don't come off!

I was researching period reels a while back and saw that the Brits were making some nice ones in the late 1850s. All brass and not a whole lot different than the ones we use today. Also the 1856 patent report lists different types of spinner baits and fishing tackle, Patent number 14706 text on pg 442 and plates on pg 540. I doubt it was something you would see on campaign but interesting none-the-less.

[markj]

Re: Fishing

This item from the Petersburg VA "Daily Express" (9 May 1862) doesn't mention troops but if mere kids were haulin'em in, then soldiers in the area were doing it too:

FISHING.--The boys enjoy very fine sport fishing in the [Appomattox] river now, and many an unlucky perch and catfish are drawn from the water. We noticed a number of young sportmen scattered up and down the banks of the river yesterday, nearly all of whom had a good bunch of fish. Some had caught strings of fish so long that it was a hard matter to keep them from dragging on the ground. The little perch, caught by the hook, is sweeter in the palate of the boy than the choicest rock or shad he can buy at market.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[ThehosGendar]

Re: Fishing

Looks like there's a reel on this fellow's pole...

From, "Virginia. Mule team crossing a brook, LC-B817- 7131 ."

[Fod]

Re: Fishing

"...brilliantly-clen white suspenders that feller is wearing. Probably be hooted right out of camp if one showed up wearing a similar set..."

What about the bandanna/handkerchief around the neck of the guy with him!

[Chris Suppelsa]

Fishing

from the diary of John Jackman, 9th Kentucky Infantry

"Two men would go into the lake, when the water was not very deep, and hold a blanket spread out, down close to the water, then others would commence lashing the water about, making it muddy, and the fish would commence skipping above the surface of the lake, and fall into the blanket, thus being caught by the hundreds"

anyone tried this?

[MO-Pard]

Re: Fishing

Can't say I have tried that, or ever seen it tried that way. But, Mitch Critel has some original fishing kits and is talking of reproducing them thereby making them available to those interested.

Sorry for pun, but a fresh fish on the fire would be a treat I have yet to experience in a period setting.

Best Regards

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Fishing

Came across this website today...looks like they offer several refences on the history of fishing...and even period tackle kits for sale...

http://www.historicanglingenterprises.com/

Paul B.