History ..Double haul, Fly lines

RE:” I don't recall our using any modern type pvc coated lines back in '38 (and I know PU hadn't been invented).”

That’s absolutely correct. I’ve attached a detail of the 1930’s “Hedge 7 taper balanced fly line” which was made of sections of silk spliced together. It very closely resembles the shape of some of the “modern” lines.

I have not found anything crediting the invention of the double haul or as it was known in those days the “double pull” and/or “double line haul”.

Best wishes,

Ally Gowans

See my web sites http://www.letsflyfish.com and http://www.flyfish-scotland.com

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Ally: Back in the 30's and 40's when I was growing up, we used braided silk fly lines. Some appeared to be "varnished" or "lacquered". These could be tweaked by sanding them, but the untreated fly lines would be ruined when we tried that. My grandfather would literally grease them with some sort of gooey substance (I never really knew what it was). I recall that he used something called, "mucin" on them sometimes, too to get the result he wanted ......and... to help protect them from the ravages of salt water. (He was an early salty fly fisherman.) We used mucin on the gut leader materials of the day, too. (they were so stiff as to be impossible to tie or use unless soaked and then treated.)

Grandpa followed the fly casting and casting tournaments before and after his move to New York. It was during one of those that Hedge was said to have used the, "double pull". He tried to show it to me when I was a youngster..... I thought is was so much nonesense that I never really used it until many years later.

Joan Wulff, in her FLY CASTING TECHNIQUES, p. 109 writes, " The old timers didn't know about the double haul. Marvin Hedge of Portland, Oregon, first used the technique in 1934, breaking Chicagoan George Chattps existing record of 125 feet (in the Trout Fly Distance event) with a cast of 147 feet." She cites, as her source, HISTORY OF FLY CASTING: Early Times, by Cliff Netherton.

I don't have a book by that exact name. Mine is entitled, " HISTORY OF THE SPORT OF CASTING People, Events, Records, Tackle and Literature Early Times by Cliff Netherton.

I checked the references to Marvin Hedge and found them in that book, p. 67 .... however, no reference to hauls or "pulls" appeared in this entry which I quote:

"1934....... For the first time since 1902, a caster passed the mark set by Mansfield, 129 1/2 feet, in the light distance fly. Marvin Hedge cast 147 feet."

On p. 87, I found an entry which listed Marvin Hedge as holding a record in the Trout Fly Distance -Light Tackle division with a cast of 172 feet (and average of his casts at 170 feet.) Still no mention of hauls.

As with my grandfather (Clifford Hewitson of Liverpool, U.K.), Joan must have had an independent recollection of his hauling. Joan and I will be discussing casting mechanics together next week and I'll ask her at that time.

Gordy

THEN

To help satisfy my curiosity, Joan happened to call me just a few minutes ago. She confirmed her independent recollection on Marvin Hedge and the double haul, having known him personally and having witnessed his casting . (She amazed me as she often does, by recalling that Hedge used to practice placing the bottom leg of his back cast loop exactly 1 1/2 inches above the stand behind the casting track.) Further, that his introduction of the Double Haul in print had appeared in an Oregon fishing journal.

I found a passage in TROUT, by Ernest Schwiebert, Volume II, p. 1272. I quote: *

"The double haul was a revelation. It had been germinating in the work of several Pacific Coast tournament casters for a dozen years, along with a series of experiments with radical line tqpers. It was probably Marvin Hedge who first worked out a rudimentary double haul in response to his own weight-forward line theories, since it was Hedge who first unveiled it in competition."

My research also came up with some other discoveries. For example, that while Charles Cotton is well known as the father of the tapered fly line (first made with braided horsehair), that it was Marvin Hedge who popularized and may have actually developed what we now call the "compound" fly line taper as well as what we now call the "weight forward taper".

(....... and some things we really don't need to know, such as the "grain weight" measurement originally being the weight of one grain of wheat ..... 7000 of them adding up to one pound. )

PVC coatings were first available in 1949. In those years, the core was tapered and the coating uniform. That changed in '51 - '52 when unidiameter cores were used and the taper made by changing the thickness of the pvc coating.

As you know, the old classification of fly lines was based on DIAMETER. About 1962 it was changed to a WEIGHT base.

For those who wish to know more about the old fly lines, the section, "Notes on Modern Fly Lines" in Schweibert's TROUT , p. 172, are informative to say the least.

Gordy

* This book is an 1834 page "tome". It has been out of print for years. Copies in good condition are expensive, so I wouldn't expect MCCI candidates to purchase it. Before I got my own copy, I used to read passages in it at the IGFA library. Most modern libraries either have it as a reference book, or can order it so you can check it out.

For those who do consider purchasing it, I strongly suggest getting both Vol I. and Vol II. as a set. I'd first consider contacting Bob Rumpf of our Group who is a dealer. His email address: caddis@xxxxxxx