spilyards

Updated: May 12, 2025

I have sat in the shade at the heads of the rivers angling and spent as much time in taking the fish off the hook as in waiting for their taking it. Like those of the Euxine Sea, they also fish with spilyards which is a long line staked out in the river and hung with a great many hooks on short strings, fastened to the main line, about four foot asunder.

James Wharton - The Bounty of the Chesapeake: Fishing in Colonial Virginia