Fly fishing is an ancient sport, with records of Romans in 200 AD using flies to catch trout and the more complete history of fishing in England and Scotland beginning in the 17th century. The Japanese form of line casting, Tenkara, is traced to the 19th century, but Japanese anglers have been tying flies for hundreds of years. American fishing tackle production in the 19th century evolved from primitive rods with horsehair line made by hand through early line.
Many credit the first recorded use of an artificial fly to the Roman Claudius Aelianus near the end of the 2nd century. He described the practice of Macedonian anglers on the Astraeus River:...they have planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their fisherman's craft. They fasten red wool round a hook, and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles, and which in color are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.
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The Treatise on Fysshynge with an Angle is found in The Boke of St. Albans which was published in 1496. It included tips for making flies, rods and lines. Fly fishing gradually became more popular throughout the eighteen hundreds in Great