117 Fun Facts About Fishing

What is fishing with a hook and line called?

The hook was formerly called an angle.

Which fishing line material is prized for near-invisibility underwater thanks to its refractive index?

Fluorocarbon (PVDF) has a refractive index of about 1.42, close to water's 1.33, so fluorocarbon leaders are far less visible to fish than nylon monofilament.

The world's oldest known fish hooks, found in Sakitari Cave, Okinawa, are made from what?

Sea snail shells: the Sakitari Cave hooks, carved from shell and dated to between 22,380 and 22,770 years old, were reported in 2016 as the world's oldest known fish hooks.

Which magazine named the fish hook one of the top 20 tools in human history in 2005?

Forbes named the fish hook one of the 20 most important tools in human history in 2005, alongside the knife, compass and scythe, noting that humans have made hooks for many thousands of years.

The earliest fishing reels are documented in paintings from which country and era?

China, Song dynasty: the earliest known pictures of a fishing reel are Chinese, including Ma Yuan's painting Angler on a Wintry Lake of about 1195.

Fishing reels first appeared in England in which decade?

1650s: reels first appear in English angling books around 1650, when interest in fly fishing was growing; by the 1760s London tackle shops were advertising multiplying reels.

George Snyder, who made the first American bait-casting reel in 1810, worked in what trade?

Watchmaker and silversmith: George Snyder of Paris, Kentucky built the first American multiplying bait-casting reel, and his 'Kentucky reel' was copied by Meek, Milam and others.

Before nylon, braided fly lines were traditionally made of which material?

Silk: oil-dressed braided silk fly lines were standard from the 19th century until nylon and PVC-coated lines replaced them after the Second World War.

From the mid-19th century, favoured rods were built by gluing strips of which material into hexagonal blanks?

Bamboo: from the 1840s makers such as Samuel Phillippe glued six triangular strips of cane into hexagonal split-bamboo blanks that were lighter and stronger than any solid wood rod.

The Mitchell 300, a classic fixed-spool spinning reel launched in the late 1940s, was made where?

France: the Mitchell 300 was built by Carpano & Pons at Cluses in the French Alps; it stayed in production for decades and tens of millions were sold.

Which tackle item suspends the bait at a set depth and dips when a fish bites?

A float or bobber holds the bait at a chosen depth and dips or slides under when a fish takes; fishing this way is called float fishing.

Why did lead become the material of choice for fishing sinkers?

Low cost, easy casting and density: lead is cheap, melts at 327 °C so it is easily cast into shapes, and its density sinks bait quickly; several jurisdictions have since restricted lead tackle over poisoning of waterfowl.

What is the term for the short branch lines carrying hooks on a commercial longline?

Snoods or gangions are the short branch lines tied or clipped to a longline's main line, each carrying a baited hook; a single longline can carry hundreds or thousands of them.

What is 'noodling'?

Noodling means catching catfish with bare hands or feet, and is practised mainly in the southern United States.

Which tool does an ice angler use to cut a round hole in the ice?

An auger, a hand-cranked or powered drill with a spiral blade, bores a round hole usually 6 to 10 inches across; an ice saw or chisel (spud bar) can also be used.

What is the reserve line wound onto a fly reel beneath the fly line called?

Backing is thin braided line wound onto the fly reel under the fly line; it fills the spool and gives extra length when a strong fish runs farther than the 90-foot fly line.

Offshore sport-fishing boats hold trolling lines clear of the wake with which long poles?

Outriggers are long poles angled out from each side of the boat; lines clipped to them run wide of the wake so several baits troll without tangling, while downriggers hold baits at depth.

Which Roman writer is often credited with the first record of an artificial fly, around 200 AD?

Claudius Aelianus, in De Natura Animalium (c. 200 AD), described Macedonian anglers on the Astraeus River catching spotted fish with a hook dressed in red wool and two cock's feathers.

The 1496 Treatyse on Fysshynge with an Angle appeared in which book?

The Boke of Saint Albans: Wynkyn de Worde's 1496 second edition added the Treatyse, attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, to the 1486 collection on hawking, hunting and heraldry.

Who wrote The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653?

Izaak Walton kept adding to The Compleat Angler for a quarter of a century after its 1653 debut.

Who added the extra chapters to the expanded 1676 edition of The Compleat Angler?

Charles Cotton, Walton's friend and fellow angler, wrote the second part on fly fishing for the fifth edition of 1676; earlier editions had appeared in 1655, 1661 and 1668.

Which Staffordshire-Derbyshire border river is thought to reflect Walton's own fishing?

The Dove, on the Staffordshire-Derbyshire border, is where Walton fished with Charles Cotton, whose 1676 Part II is set on the river below Cotton's Beresford Hall.

What was the author of The Compleat Angler's trade when he moved to London as a teenager?

Linen draper: Walton, born in Stafford in 1593, kept a linen draper's shop in Fleet Street, London, where he became a friend and parishioner of the poet John Donne.

Which fly angler promoted catch and release from 1936, saying game fish are too valuable to catch only once?

Lee Wulff, the fly-fishing author and film-maker, argued from the 1930s that 'a game fish is too valuable to be caught only once', a line printed in his 1939 Handbook of Freshwater Fishing.

Which US state first introduced catch and release as a management tool, in 1952?

The aim was to cut the cost of stocking hatchery trout.

In which Alaskan town was fly-fishing legend Lee Wulff born in 1905?

Valdez: Lee Wulff was born there in 1905, his father having gone north in the gold rush; he later settled in the northeastern United States and became the era's best-known fly angler.

Which marine biologist is credited with founding big-game fishing in 1898?

Charles Frederick Holder landed a 183-pound bluefin tuna on rod and reel off Santa Catalina Island in 1898 and founded the Tuna Club of Avalon the same year.

The International Game Fish Association was launched in 1939 at which institution?

The American Museum of Natural History in New York hosted the IGFA's founding on 7 June 1939, with museum ichthyologist William K. Gregory as first president and Michael Lerner among the founders.

Which magazine handed 68 years of freshwater records to the IGFA in 1978?

Field & Stream had kept the freshwater world records since 1910 and transferred them to the IGFA in 1978; the IGFA had tracked saltwater records since its founding in 1939.

Since 1999, the IGFA has been headquartered in which city?

Dania Beach, Florida: the IGFA moved its headquarters and Fishing Hall of Fame there in 1999; it publishes the annual World Record Game Fishes book.

Who founded the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.)?

Ray Scott, an Alabama insurance salesman, founded the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society in 1967 and staged the first Bassmaster Classic in 1971; he is called the godfather of modern bass fishing.

Where was the first Bassmaster Classic held in 1971?

Lake Mead, Nevada hosted the first Bassmaster Classic in October 1971, won by Bobby Murray; first prize was $10,000, a sum that reached $500,000 by 2006.

Which two anglers were the first to win the Bassmaster Classic four times each?

Rick Clunn and Kevin VanDam: Clunn won in 1976, 1977, 1984 and 1990, and VanDam in 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2011.

In which year did women first compete in the Bassmaster Classic?

2009: Kim Bain-Moore became the first woman to fish the Bassmaster Classic after winning the Women's Bassmaster Tour; Pam Martin-Wells followed in 2010, the last year that tour carried a Classic berth.

In bass fishing, what is a 'Texas rig'?

A Texas rig is a plastic worm rigged weedless with a sliding bullet weight: the hook point is buried in the worm so it slides through weeds and brush without snagging.

How old was Rick Clunn when he became the oldest Bassmaster Elite Series winner in February 2019?

72: Clunn, born in July 1946, won the February 2019 Elite Series event on Florida's St. Johns River, beating the record he had set by winning there in 2016 at 69.

Bill Dance's fishing show began in 1968 on a TV station in which city?

Memphis: Bill Dance Outdoors first aired on a Memphis television station in 1968 and grew into one of the longest-running fishing shows on American television.

Bill Dance's trademark baseball cap represents which college team?

Tennessee Volunteers: Dance, raised in Lynchburg, Tennessee, has worn the orange 'T' cap of the University of Tennessee on his show for decades.

Johnny Morris started Bass Pro Shops in 1972 selling tackle from where?

His father's liquor store: in 1972 Morris began selling tackle from eight square feet of space in his father's Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield, Missouri.

In which state was Cabela's founded in December 1961?

Nebraska: Dick Cabela began selling hand-tied flies by mail from his kitchen table in Chappell, Nebraska in 1961, and the company later moved to Sidney.

Orvis opened its first tackle shop in 1856 in which town?

The flagship store opened there for the company's centenary in 1956.

Lauri Rapala carved the first floating minnow lure in 1936 from what?

Cork: Rapala whittled his first lure from cork in 1936, wrapping it in chocolate-bar foil and sealing it with melted photographic negatives; balsa wood came later.

Rapala, the lure maker, is based in which country?

Finland: Lauri Rapala made his first lures beside Lake Päijänne in the 1930s, and the Rapala VMC group is headquartered in Helsinki.

What did Abu Garcia's parent company AB Urfabriken originally manufacture?

Watches, telephone timers and taximeters: AB Urfabriken ('the watch factory'), founded in Svängsta, Sweden in 1921, switched to fishing reels during the Second World War and launched the Ambassadeur in 1952.

Tackle giant Shimano is headquartered in which Japanese prefecture?

Osaka: Shimano was founded in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture in 1921 by Shozaburo Shimano, making bicycle freewheels before it moved into fishing tackle in 1970.

George Perry's record largemouth bass of 1932 weighed how much?

22 lb 4 oz: Perry's bass, taken from Montgomery Lake, Georgia on 2 June 1932, was matched to within an ounce by Manabu Kurita's Lake Biwa bass in 2009.

The largemouth bass is the state fish of Georgia and which other state?

Mississippi adopted the largemouth bass as its state fish in 1974; Georgia chose it in 1970, and it is also the state freshwater fish of Florida and Alabama.

Where was David Hayes's all-tackle world record smallmouth bass caught in 1955?

Dale Hollow Reservoir, on the Tennessee-Kentucky line, produced Hayes's 11 lb 15 oz smallmouth in July 1955, the IGFA all-tackle record.

The name 'muskellunge' comes from an Ojibwe word meaning what?

Ugly pike: the name comes from the Ojibwe maashkinoozhe, 'ugly pike', filtered through French as masquinongé; at least 94 common names were once used for the species.

The IGFA record muskellunge was caught by Cal Johnson in 1949 in which state?

Wisconsin: Johnson's 67 lb 8 oz muskellunge came from Lac Courte Oreilles near Hayward, Wisconsin, in July 1949 and was recognised as the IGFA all-tackle record.

Mabry Harper's world record walleye of 1960 came from which Tennessee reservoir?

Old Hickory: Harper's 25-pound walleye was taken from Old Hickory Lake, a Cumberland River reservoir near Nashville, in August 1960.

Which state made the walleye its official state fish in 1965?

Minnesota adopted the walleye as its state fish in 1965, and the species is stocked in hundreds of its lakes; South Dakota followed in 1982.

Where is the world's largest walleye hatchery?

Garrison Dam, North Dakota: the Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery below Lake Sakakawea, run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, has been described as the world's largest producer of walleye.

The IGFA record bluegill of 4 lb 12 oz was caught in 1950 in which state?

Alabama: T. S. Hudson's 4 lb 12 oz bluegill came from Ketona Lake near Birmingham, Alabama, in April 1950, and it has stood as the IGFA all-tackle record.

The bluegill is the state fish of which state?

Illinois: schoolchildren voted the bluegill the state fish in 1986, a species so common in Illinois ponds that it is often the first fish a child catches.

The heaviest authenticated wels catfish, landed in 2010, came from which river?

Po: the fish was landed in the Po river in northern Italy in 2010 by a Hungarian angler; the Po delta is famed for giant wels catfish.

Colin Smith's record common carp of 2013 weighed roughly how much?

100 lb: Smith's carp weighed 100 lb 8 oz when landed at Etang La Saussaie in France in 2013, the first carp reported over 100 pounds.

The 'hair rig', a carp-fishing innovation of about 1980, holds the bait where?

On a short length of line hanging from the hook: the hair rig, developed by Lenny Middleton and Kevin Maddocks around 1980, leaves the hook bare so it pricks the carp as it ejects the bait.

The IGFA record Atlantic bluefin tuna, 679 kg, was caught off which Canadian province?

Nova Scotia: Ken Fraser's 679 kg (1,496 lb) bluefin was taken off Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia, on 26 October 1979, the IGFA all-tackle record.

The longest fight between anglers and a tuna, in 1934, lasted how long?

62 hours: in 1934 six men took turns on the rod in a two-and-a-half-day battle with a bluefin tuna off Liverpool, Nova Scotia, the longest tuna fight on record.

Alfred Glassell's 1953 IGFA record of 1,560 lb, set off Peru, was for which marlin?

Black marlin: Glassell's 1,560 lb (707.6 kg) black marlin, taken off Cabo Blanco, Peru on 4 August 1953, has stood for decades as the heaviest marlin in the IGFA all-tackle records.

The IGFA all-tackle swordfish record, 536 kg, was taken in 1953 off which country?

Chile: Louis Marron's 1,182 lb (536 kg) swordfish was taken off Iquique, Chile in May 1953 and has stood as the IGFA all-tackle record.

Research in 2015 and 2016 found sailfish actually top out at what speed?

They had long been credited with 125 km/h.

The largest angled striped bass, 81 lb 14 oz, was taken from which body of water?

Long Island Sound: Greg Myerson's 81 lb 14 oz striped bass, hooked off Westbrook, Connecticut in August 2011, became the IGFA all-tackle record.

The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island and which other state?

South Carolina adopted the striped bass as its state fish in 1972, joining Maryland and Rhode Island; it is also the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia and New Hampshire.

The record red drum, just over 94 pounds, was caught in 1984 on which island?

Hatteras: David Deuel's 94 lb 2 oz red drum was caught from the surf at Avon on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, in November 1984, the IGFA all-tackle record.

Which are the world's largest flatfish?

Pacific and Atlantic halibut are the largest flatfish: Atlantic halibut can exceed 300 kg and 2.5 metres, and the IGFA all-tackle Pacific halibut record is a 459 lb (208 kg) fish from Alaska in 1996.

The 'hali' in halibut refers to what?

Its popularity on Catholic holy days: 'halibut' is Middle English haly (holy) plus butte (flatfish), because the fish was eaten on holy days when meat was forbidden.

The largest accepted beluga sturgeon record, 1,571 kg, was taken in 1827 from where?

It measured 7.2 metres.

Traditionally, true caviar comes only from wild sturgeon in which two seas?

Caspian and Black: the classic beluga, ossetra and sevruga caviars came from wild sturgeon of the Caspian and Black Seas, fished by Russia and Iran, before wild harvests collapsed and farming took over.

Which fish took the Guinness World Record for largest freshwater fish in 2005?

Mekong giant catfish: a 2.7-metre, 293 kg specimen netted in northern Thailand in May 2005 took the Guinness record, which a 300 kg giant freshwater stingray from Cambodia surpassed in 2022.

Alf Dean's 1959 rod-and-reel record was a great white shark weighing how much?

2,663 lb: Dean's great white, about 1,208 kg, was taken on rod and reel off Ceduna, South Australia in April 1959 and has stood as the heaviest fish in the IGFA all-tackle book.

The IGFA world record brook trout of 14 lb 8 oz was caught in 1915 on which river?

Nipigon: Dr John W. Cook's 14 lb 8 oz brook trout came from Ontario's Nipigon River in July 1915, an IGFA all-tackle record unbeaten for more than a century.

The IGFA rod-and-reel record lake trout of 72 pounds was caught in 1995 in which lake?

Great Bear: Lloyd Bull's 72-pound lake trout came from Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, in August 1995; the heaviest ever, almost 102 pounds, was netted in Lake Athabasca in 1961.

The sport-caught world record Chinook salmon of 97 lb was taken in 1985 from which river?

Kenai: Les Anderson's 97 lb 4 oz Chinook was taken from Alaska's Kenai River in May 1985, the IGFA all-tackle record.

The steelhead is the official state fish of which state?

Washington adopted the steelhead, the sea-run form of rainbow trout, as its official state fish in 1969.

Which Alaskan bay hosts the world's largest sockeye salmon harvest?

Bristol Bay, in southwest Alaska, supports the world's largest sockeye salmon run; commercial harvests there have topped 40 million fish in strong years.

The zander, a European pike-perch, was first stocked into which English river system in 1963?

Great Ouse: 97 zander were stocked into the Great Ouse Relief Channel in Norfolk in 1963 and spread through the Fens, later colonising the Severn and Trent.

Where do European eels spawn?

The Sargasso Sea: European eels migrate up to 6,000 km to spawn there in the western Atlantic; their leaf-shaped larvae, leptocephali, drift back on the Gulf Stream to become glass eels.

Salmon are thought to find their natal river from the ocean using what?

Magnetoreception, then smell: salmon appear to use the Earth's magnetic field to steer back to the coast, then home in on the chemical scent of their natal stream, imprinted as juveniles.

The Latin root of 'salmon' may come from salire, meaning what?

To leap: Latin salmo is often derived from salire, 'to leap', for the fish's jumps upstream; English borrowed Old French saumon and later restored the silent 'l' to match the Latin.

Catfish are named for their barbels, which resemble what?

A cat's whiskers: the fleshy barbels around a catfish's mouth, which carry taste buds and feel for food in murky water, look like whiskers, though not every species has prominent ones.

The first living coelacanth was found in 1938 off the coast of which country?

South Africa: the fish was netted off East London near the Chalumna River mouth in December 1938 and identified by museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, honoured in the genus name Latimeria.

Snakeheads can migrate short distances over land because they can do what?

Breathe air: snakeheads have a suprabranchial chamber that lets them gulp atmospheric air, so they can survive out of water for days and wriggle short distances across wet ground.

What is the largest known living fish species?

The whale shark is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark; the 18.8-metre individual is considered the largest reliably recorded.

Female ocean sunfish can produce how many eggs at a time, more than any other vertebrate?

Up to 300 million: a female ocean sunfish (Mola mola) can carry some 300 million tiny eggs, more than any other known vertebrate; they are released into the water and fertilised externally.

The Cod Wars were fought over fishing rights between the UK and which country?

Iceland: the three Cod Wars of 1958, 1972-73 and 1975-76 followed Iceland's extensions of its fishing limits to 12, 50 and 200 miles, and each ended with Britain conceding.

In what year did Canada impose its cod moratorium on the Grand Banks?

1992: Canada closed the Northern cod fishery on 2 July 1992 after stocks collapsed, putting about 30,000 Newfoundlanders out of work; a limited commercial fishery reopened in 2024.

Which fish has been called 'the most heavily exploited fish in world history'?

Peruvian anchoveta: catches off Peru and Chile peaked at over 13 million tonnes in 1971, the largest of any single species; until about 2005 the fish went almost entirely to fishmeal.

Which fish is used in McDonald's Filet-O-Fish?

Alaska pollock: McDonald's Filet-O-Fish is made from wild-caught Alaska pollock, the white fish that is also the main raw material for surimi (imitation crab).

Herring were nicknamed what in the United Kingdom?

Silver darlings: the name, immortalised by Neil Gunn's 1941 novel The Silver Darlings, recalls the herring boom of Scotland's east coast; smoked, herring become kippers.

In Roman times anchovies were the base for which fermented sauce?

Garum: the Romans fermented anchovies and other small fish with salt in the sun to make garum, produced in industrial quantities at factories in Spain and North Africa.

The Marine Stewardship Council became independent in 1999 of which two founding partners?

WWF and Unilever set up the Marine Stewardship Council in 1997 and it became fully independent in 1999; its blue ecolabel marks seafood certified as sustainably caught.

A 'slot limit' set by a fisheries agency restricts what?

The size range of fish an angler may keep: a slot limit protects a band of lengths, such as 14 to 18 inches, so breeding-age fish are returned while smaller and larger ones may be kept.

In fishing, what is 'chumming'?

Chumming is scattering bait to draw fish to the boat: ground fish, blood or oil is ladled into the water to create a scent trail; it is banned in some waters, including for sharks in parts of the US.

An 'Arbroath smokie', the hot-smoked speciality of the Scottish town, is which fish?

Haddock: an Arbroath smokie is a whole haddock, headed and gutted, salted and hot-smoked in pairs over hardwood; the name gained EU protected status in 2004.

Cormorant fishing was recorded as an ancient Japanese method in which Chinese history, completed in 636 CE?

Book of Sui: the official history of China's Sui dynasty, completed in 636 CE, describes cormorant fishing as a practice of the Japanese; in Japan it is called ukai and survives on the Nagara River.

The osprey was historically known by which nickname?

Fish hawk: the osprey, whose diet is almost entirely live fish, was long called the fish hawk in North America; it has reversible outer toes and spiny foot pads for gripping slippery prey.

In The Old Man and the Sea, what does the fisherman Santiago struggle to catch?

Santiago's long struggle with a giant marlin won Hemingway the 1953 Pulitzer Prize.

The Old Man and the Sea was the only work named when Hemingway won which honour in 1954?

Nobel Prize in Literature: the 1954 citation praised 'his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea', the only work named; the Pulitzer had come in 1953.

Which Oscar did the fly-fishing film A River Runs Through It win?

Best Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot won the 1993 Academy Award for his photography of Montana's rivers; the film's other nominations were for adapted screenplay and original score.

A River Runs Through It is set in and around which Montana city?

Missoula: Norman Maclean's 1976 novella follows the Maclean brothers, sons of a Presbyterian minister, in Missoula and on the nearby Blackfoot River; the film was shot largely near Livingston and Bozeman.

Deadliest Catch follows fishermen catching what in the Bering Sea?

Crab: Deadliest Catch, which premiered on Discovery in April 2005, follows boats fishing for Alaskan king crab and opilio (snow) crab in the Bering Sea.

Which port is the base of operations for the Deadliest Catch fleet?

Dutch Harbor, on Unalaska Island in the Aleutians, is the fleet's home port; it has also ranked for decades as America's top fishing port by volume landed.

Who hosts River Monsters, the series hunting large and dangerous fish?

Jeremy Wade, a Suffolk-born biologist and angler, travels the world chasing large and dangerous fish for the show.

The 1975 film Jaws was based on a novel by whom?

Peter Benchley's 1974 novel Jaws was adapted by Steven Spielberg; malfunctioning mechanical sharks pushed him to merely suggest the shark's presence for much of the film.

What is the name of Captain Ahab's whaling ship in Moby-Dick?

Pequod: Ahab's Nantucket whaler, named for the Pequot people of Connecticut, is sunk by the white whale at the novel's end; the Rachel is the ship that rescues Ishmael.

Fish-and-chip shops first appeared in the UK in which decade?

1860s: Joseph Malin's shop in London's East End (about 1860) and John Lees's in Mossley, Lancashire (1863) both claim to be the first; by 1910 there were over 25,000 fish-and-chip shops in Britain.

Who is believed to have invented nigiri-zushi around 1824?

Hanaya Yohei is credited with creating nigiri-zushi at his Edo stall around 1824, hand-pressing vinegared rice with a slice of fish to make a fast food for the city's chōnin class.

Isotope analysis of which 40,000-year-old East Asian human showed he regularly ate freshwater fish?

Tianyuan man: isotope analysis of the roughly 40,000-year-old skeleton from Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, published in 2009, showed a diet rich in freshwater fish.

The modern sailing trawler was developed in the 19th century at which English fishing port?

Brixham's sleek build and tall gaff rig let boats reach distant grounds after South Devon's waters were overfished; nearly 1,000 trawlers were later based at Grimsby.

What was the Fairtry, launched at Aberdeen in 1953?

The first purpose-made stern trawler: the Fairtry, built by John Lewis & Sons in Aberdeen for Christian Salvesen, hauled its nets over the stern and froze and filleted the catch aboard, launching the era of the factory 'super trawler'.

Which English town became a tackle-making centre after artisans left London following the 1666 fire?

Redditch, in Worcestershire, became the centre of English hook and tackle making from the 1730s after London craftsmen moved there following the Great Fire of 1666; its needle industry supplied the same skills.

What does the name of the traditional Japanese fly-fishing method 'Tenkara' literally mean?

'From heaven' is the literal meaning of Tenkara, which began as a way for mountain fishermen and inn-keepers to harvest ayu, trout and char for their guests.

Which American angler pioneered fly fishing for brook trout in the Catskills in the late 1800s?

Theodore Gordon and his contemporaries fished streams such as the Beaverkill and Willowemoc Creek and devised new fly patterns.

Which English writer's nymph techniques on chalk streams horrified the dry-fly purists?

G. E. M. Skues, a London solicitor who fished the Itchen, set out his nymph 'heresies' in Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream (1910) and The Way of a Trout with a Fly (1921), provoking F. M. Halford's dry-fly school.

In which decade did graphite (carbon-fibre) fishing rods first reach the market?

1970s: Fenwick introduced the first commercial graphite rod, the HMG, in 1973, and carbon fibre went on to displace fibreglass as the standard rod material.