Walter & Group...
As many of you know, Al Crise has been a member of our Group for years. He has hosted the CCI Study Group tirelessly. His expertise and enthusiasm for teaching children to fly cast has been unmatched. His efforts on the FFF Casting Instructor Certification Program has been exceptional.
Al has advanced cancer and is now on pain medication having already undergone advanced treatment.
Whever asked to help on any teaching session or even the mundane effort to clean up after a conclave, Al has been ready and willing to help to the max !
This from Jim Phillips :
Al Crise Day
Come join the club for a fun day, at Dinosaur State Park in Glenrose, Texas. There will be a full days worth of activities, for you to enjoy. There will be fishing in the Paluxy River, casting in the campground areas, or just swapping lies and stories in the pavilion. The main attraction of the day will be to honor our dear friend, and club member, Al Crise. There will be a late afternoon/early dinner in his honor, followed by a time where we will share experiences that we have all had with Al. The evening will end, with a presentation to Al, for his effort, and dedication to our club.
Anyone can enter the park for $5.00 a day. If you are over 65, then you may enter for $3.00 a day. Even better, if you have a State Park pass, you may get in free!!
The pavilion is available from 10am till 9pm. There are picnic tables, seating areas, and a cozy fireplace for us to enjoy.
The recommended donation for the meal will be $25.00. All of the proceeds from this event will go to Reel Recovery and Casting for Recovery.
Thank you for coming and attending this event. It will be a day, we will never forget. So help us celebrate with Al, and help a great cause!!!
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A BIT OF FLY ROD HISTORY
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We've come a long way with modern modifications of the ways we cast. This has been paralelled with the ongoing development of new and different materials for our equipment.
As a youngster, I recall flyfishing in both the salt and fresh water with bamboo rods and treated silk and Cuttyhunk lines. I even got to use my grandfather's heavy Greeheart rod with brass ferrules and brass-tubeular guides. As a youngster, I couldn't appreciate the nuances of casting except to realize that it was too heavy for me to cast for more than a few minutes and "took forever to swing".
These, briefly, were followed with step design berylliam-copper rods until WWII when metals became strategic materials. After the War, by fiberglass. Now we use rods of composite materials including graphite and Boron. Bamboo has never died as many enjoy fishing with them.
Few of us have actually cast with the Greenheart rods of prior years or the rods made with combinations of woods and bamboo. ( I've learned that Bamboo and Palms really belong in the family of grasses.)
These thoughts along with our recent historical messages bring us to Guy Manning's message :
Gordy,
Not to one up John Sally? I was
privileged enough to get to cast a 15 foot, 3 piece, Grant Vibration a couple of
years ago at the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Clubs annual Spey-O-Rama. One
of the members, who prefers anonymity about his collection, brought it down upon
request and we got to play for a while. We did not have a vintage line and had
to do with a 10wt mid belly spey line, so I can?t say exactly how it cast. I
will say that the greenheart is the epitome of slow?.
To make the rod work for you,
one must use about ¼ of the stroke speed you would use for the slowest DH rod
out there today. The stroke length was shorter than you might expect due to the
fact that when you stop the rod, the rod didn?t stop, it just kept on going.
Counter flex took nearly a second to occur after I stopped the rod. I believe it
weighed about 2 pounds but felt much heavier in the hand. Having said that I am
sure one could fish with it all day if they had good overall casting form.
I don?t believe the owner fishes
it, but he does get it out now and then to let people at the spey events get
their hands on a treasure.
The rod was in exceptionally
good shape and had no repairs or refinishing done to it.
I get excited about historical
objects like this and this was a real highlight for me. I have also had the
opportunity to try out some other collectors rods at one time or another. One
person let me be the first to cast (aside from himself) his Michelle-Bisson 8 ½,
5wt, 2 piece rod that was a presentation rod to Charles Ritz. Ritz had never
used the rod so the owner and I were trying out a virgin rod. It consisted of a
glass lower section married with a bamboo upper section that was about as sweet
as they come. With a modern line it went easily 80 feet for me, who knows what
it would have done with a silk line and a bit more practice to groove my stroke
to it.
Guy Manning
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Some of you have written as to whether Grant could have competed with our advanced Two Handed Casters of today. One can only wonder what might have happened if he had been able to use present day equipement and had been schooled in modern casting methods.
Gordy
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