We recently asked those of you who frequent the Wired2Fish Facebook page to share your thoughts about what the biggest innovations in fishing have been over the years. I reviewed all of your responses and compiled the results of our not-so-scientific poll here, with a little background info on each leap forward in fishing tech nominated in the comments. So without father ado, here are the most important innovations in fishing — according to you.
Modern Fishing Lines
Many of you mentioned modern fishing lines, which is something I think that we take for granted. Evidence suggests that the earliest anglers used line made from plant fibers or animal hair. Horse hair and silk were most commonly used until they were replaced by linen sometime in the 1500s, which presented some unique issues. To avoid rot, linen lines had to be dried after use on special racks and dryers. This was, obviously, a pain in the neck.
Braided, synthetic Dacron, a much easier material to work with that doesn’t rot, eventually replaced linen. But in 1939, DuPont provided anglers with one of the biggest innovations in the history of fishing: nylon monofilament lines. This modern marvel was the first fishing line that didn’t require any special care, letting anglers just put their rods away after a day on the water. Though the earliest nylon lines were a bit stiff, they offered better knot strength and lower visibility than the predecessors. A star was born.
The next big fishing line innovation came around 1970, when fluorocarbon was introduced. This new material was less visible under water than mono, thanks to a “refractive index,” which determines how much the path of light is bent, or refracted, when entering a material, that’s closer to that of water; water has a refractive index of 1.33, while flouro’s is 1.42, and nylon’s is 1.53. In addition to the lower visibility, flouro is also much tougher, making it an excellent choice for fishing around heavy cover.
Modern braided lines constructed of fine strands changed the game again, though there is some debate about when these were first introduced. The earliest examples in the world were likely introduced sometime in the 1970s.
Ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene (UHMWPE), marketed as Dyneema and Spectra in the U.S., were developed in 1987, and ushered in a new era in fishing lines. But it wasn’t until Western Filament introduced Tuf-Line in 1991 that this new class of fishing line entered the mainstream. Spiderwire and Berkley’s Fireline came shortly after, and the rest is history.
High-Tech Rods
Rods have also come a long way. Bamboo, cane, and other natural materials were used for centuries, but these materials were replaced as engineering and production methods improved. In the 1940s, fiberglass was embraced by many rod manufacturers. This resulted in the 1950s being awash in rods that were more durable and responsive than the cane models that came earlier.
For a time, a number of companies produced metal fishing rods; I have a couple of 5-foot steel sticks sold under the True Temper brand sitting in the garage. Steel rods were made from the late 1800s through the mid 1900s; Heddon even offered tubular steel rods late into the 1950s, but their popularity waned in favor of new materials.
In the 1970s, Fenwick, Shakespeare, Garcia-Conolon, and Lamiglas introduced graphite rods, which were quickly embraced because of the greater sensitivity they offered. Sure, you can still find a split bamboo fly rod for sale that’s made by artisans, but most commercial rods are currently built from ultra-high modulus graphite that offers strength and sensitivity.
Reels
If you trace their lineage from the very beginning, early fishing reels are almost unrecognizable. Most offered one-to-one cranking capabilities and no drag; click-pawl mechanisms powered by simple springs allowed them to provide some resistance.
Spinning reels showed up sometime after WWII and let anglers toss baits that were much lighter than the revolving spool reels could handle.
Today, there’s an array of styles to choose from that are lightweight, and offer up to 7.1 or higher gear ratios, letting anglers burn baits in faster than ever thought possible. Modern drag washers offer an unfathomable amount of pressure with little to no start inertia, protecting the lightest of lines while winching big fish out of heavy cover.
The Trolling Motor
Many folks cited the trolling motor as one of the greatest fishing innovations of all time, and it’s pretty easy to see why. The first commercially available trolling motor was an electric model made by O.G. Schmidt in 1934. It used a starter motor from a Ford Model A combined with a flexible shaft. Schmidt’s company was located near the Minnesota and North Dakota border, so he named it “Minn Kota.” Almost 100 years later, Minn Kota is still kicking out trolling motors, though they are certainly much more advanced than that first model.
Modern units are based on a 12-, 24-, 36-volt brushed (or increasingly, longer-lasting brushless) motors, and can offer upwards of 100 pounds thrust — more than most outboards were capable of just a few decades ago. You can still get clamp-on transom-mount models that steer by hand, but many opt for the high tech versions that are affixed to the bow and controlled with foot pedals, wireless remotes, or even by GPS guidance. These can pilot a solo angler right along the edge of cover or contour lines, keeping them in perfect position as they go.
They can also replace anchors, to an extent. “Spot Lock” and similar virtual anchor modes use GPS tech to adjust the motor many times a second to keep a boat locked in position wherever an angler wants, regardless of wind or currents. Speaking of anchors, Power Poles are another important innovation. These high-tech sticks in the mud let anglers pin their boat in position silently, at the push of a button.
The Fish Finder
You might say the origins of the fish finder can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci, who invented sonar by using an underwater tube to listen for approaching ships way back 1490. The first true “Sound Navigation and Ranging device” was patented by Lewis Fry Richardson in 1913, but it wasn’t until 1959 that the technology would really benefit anglers, when Lowrance introduced the “Little Green Box,” the FISH-LO-K-TOR portable sonar. The unit was incredibly popular and went on to sell a million units over the next 25 years. Humminbird burst onto the scene in 1971, when Tom Mann tinkered with a do-it-yourself electronics kit.
The advancements didn’t stop there and the first fish finder with an LCD screen and built-in microprocessor showed up in 1984. In 2009, DownScan sonar showed up, which transmits multiple sonar signals simultaneously to create the sharpest images of fish and structure yet. The development would eventually lead to 360 and forward-facing sonar.
The game was changed again in 2018, when Garmin’s Panoptix LiveScope won Best of Show at ICAST for its ability to create live images of structure and fish in front of the boat — not behind or beneath it. Not to be outdone, Humminbird introduced MEGA 360 Imaging in 2019 and followed it up in 2021 with MEGA Live Imaging, giving anglers high-res images of fish and structure surrounding the boat. This tech is spreading like wildfire through the fishing industry, and has become a staple on many pro and amateur anglers’ boats alike.
YouTube
I grew up watching the Bass Professor, Doug Hannon’s excellent underwater videos on VHS tapes. We’d gather at a friend’s house after school, pop the tape in, and learn; we’d never seen anything like it. We marveled at the footage of bass in their natural habitat, and absorbed everything we could about their behavior.
While those videos were incredible, they pale in comparison to what’s available on the internet today. Not only are topside and underwater videos in higher resolution than we ever thought possible back in the VHS days, but it’s perhaps more incredible how easy it is to access so much fishing information in video form.
A quick trip to our own YouTube channel (shameless plug here) gives you a look at fish behavior, tactics ,and techniques, as well as info on gear, and we are one of many outlets for fishing content on the massive platform that is YouTube. You can get all this info anywhere you have access to the internet, and see someone do the thing you need to do as they’re explaining it — that sounds trivial to people who grew up in the internet age, but for those of us who remember the before times, it’s fun once in a while to take a step back and marvel a bit.
It’s no wonder so many of you listed YouTube as one of the biggest innovations in fishing.
