Ross Poldark Sea Fishing

[Mitch300]

I couldn't help noticing that the opening scenes of the first episode of Poldark, Season 5 (soon to be available on DVD), show the intrepid Captain
in a rowing boat off the coast of Cornwall with what looks like a cane rod and a large-diameter centrepin. Strangest of all, I couldn't find any reference to traditional Cornish rods and reels from 1800 on this forum. Surely the producers of this show weren't taking liberties with important historical facts?

G. B.

[Phil Arnott]

As Poldark is set between 1781 and 1801 any person around that time would have almost certainly gone fishing with a hand-line. Although there are a few earlier references, fishing with rod and reel did not really start to catch on until around the mid 1800 with the first pure sea fishing books appearing in 1863 "Sea fish and how to catch them" and 1865 "The Sea Fisherman" and "Sea Fishing as a Sport".