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Experiments with material for the line led to the use of a gut string (mentioned by the diarist Samuel Pepys in 1667) and of a lute string (noted by Col. Robert Venables in 1676). The use of a landing hook, or gaff, for lifting large hooked fish from the water was noted by Thomas Barker in 1667. Improved methods of fishhook making were devised in the 1650s by Charles Kirby, who later invented the Kirby bend, a distinctive shape of hook with an offset point that is still in common use worldwide. Kirby and his fellow hook makers eventually established factories in Redditch about 1730. Redditch remains the current centre of the English hook-manufacturing industry.
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The first period of great improvement came about the mid-17th century, when Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton were writing the classic The Compleat Angler (1653). During this time an angler might attach a wire loop or ring at the tip end of the rod, which allowed a free-running line, useful for both casting and playing a hooked fish. This method intensified the need to develop a means of taking up and storing longer lines and led to the invention of the fishing reel.
