The history is not very precise and clear as to the birth of recreational fishing or fishing as a sport. Japan, in their culture and historical books, have mentioned “fly fishing” that men used to partake in as early as the 9th century BCE. Claudius Aelianus has mentioned fly fishing as early as the 175-234 CE. He has furthered described fly fishing in his book Nature of Animals.
The historians are divided in case of Japan where some historians believe that for the Japanese, it was more a matter of survival rather than a sport. The Norman Conquest happened in 1066 AD in England, and it is known that fly fishing came with it. There is no single point in history that could tell us that humans started participating in the sport of fishing from that movement on, however, it is undisputed that fishing sport had officially arrived on the scene when the book The Compleat Angier was published.
The printing press was invented in the 14th century and it was not until 1496 when a student published an essay on sports fishing. The author of the book was Dame Juliana Berners. She was a prioress of a Benedictine Sopwell Nunnery.
The title of the book was “Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle” and as the name suggests, it talked about fishing with the help of angle. In those days, it was largely believed that this was a sport for the noblemen and gentlemen, and thus, the book was kept from the common men. They feared that any changes in the angling would totally destroy it.
By the 16th century, the book had been republished many times for circulation across the country. The book describes in great detail the angles, hooks, lines, and rods that are used in the sport of fishing.