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Walter & Group.....
[GH] Let's take a brief break from our present topic to think about some fly casting history.
Many of us have concluded from what we've heard and read that Marvin Hedge may have invented and developed the double haul. Of course, the fact that he won a casting tournament as he used it back in the 1930's might have led us to that conclusion. He undoubtedly deserves credit for introducing it to competition fly casting.
According to my grandfather, Clifford Hewitson, who witnessed many of these casting events in the US and Europe back then, (I wasn't born until 1930) other fly anglers had used various line hand "pulls" to augment their presentation casts. It is possible that some of them actually used it on their back casts as well .... thus somewhere out there in a cloud of fly fishing endeavor, perhaps well before the 30's, the double haul by any name may have been "invented" if not used regularly by some anglers. Some may even have used it without thinking about it.
Joan Wulff has written, "The old timers didn't know about the double haul. Marvin Hedge of Portland, Oregon, first used the technique in 1934, breaking Chicagoan George Chatt's existing record of 125 feet (in the Trout Fly Distance event) with a cast of 147 feet." *
Joan teaches that a single haul is made with line hand pull on either forward or back cast without giving back line. She defines a double haul as distinct from the single haul in that the caster gives back line. This differs from a more widely accepted description of the double haul as a pull (haul) with the line hand followed by either giving back line or line release on both the back cast and the forward cast. Since neither description is "written in stone on the mount", the student of fly casting should be aware of each.
Acclaimed fly fishing historian, Jack W. Berryman, specialized in the history of U.S.A. West Coast and British Columbia, Canada fly angling developments. He paid homage to the much earlier traditions of fly fishing and fly casting of the U.K and Continental Europe.
In his book, Fly Fishing Pioneers & Legends of the Northwest, he informs us that Maurice "Mooch" Abraham, also known as, "Mooch Abrams", taught the technique to Marvin Hedge. Jack wrote :
"When the Portland Casting Club reorganized in 1931, Mooch became its first honorary life member and was identified as the club's principal coach. It was at this time, because of a shoulder injury from a previous automobile accident, Mooch began practicing what became the 'double-haul' technique in fly casting. He introduced this method to his fellow anglers and casting club members, but especially to Marvin Hedge, whom he coached for the 1934 national casting competition in St. Louis. It was here that Hedge first introduced Mooch's double haul into competitive casting."
".......Hedge beat the old mark of 125 feet, set in 1925 by 22 feet. THE NEW YORK TIMES reported the record-breaking event, and a St. Louis newspaper report exclaimed, ' The Westerner went into action with powerful rhythmic movements.... The gallery went wild!' It was at this event that Hedge introduced the double haul into competitive casting." "Hedge proclaimed that 'there wasn't a soul in St. Louis that had ever seen it. They took motion pictures of it and, after that, they asked me questions about it until two in the morning.' In fact, the 'Anglers Fly Distance' category at national tournaments has been often referred to as 'the steelhead event'." **
Did Hedge actually use the line hand haul on his back casts as well as his forward strokes ? One bit of evidence that he did appears in a photograph of him warming up for a National casting event. The photo depicts him at the completion of his back cast with his line hand having completed a long haul. ***
Jack Berryman also lets us know about the very beginning of the Federation of Fly Fishers : " Wahl and Bradner ( Ralph Wahl and Enos Bradner of Northwest steelhead fame) drove to Eugene (Oregon) in June 1965 for the inaugural national conclave of fly-fishing clubs and set up a photo display for the attendees. From this meeting the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) was formed, and Wahl became very active in this group. " ****
.....Thought some of you might find that interesting.
I signed on as a member later that year. I didn't maintain my membership, however because most of the FFF contributors lacked interest in any style of fly casting other than one employing a vertical casting plane, which I rarely used and didn't teach, and no apparent interest in salt water fly fishing which is what I did most often. I had found it much easier to use the Lefty Kreh style of casting. Then I renewed years later when the CICP was formed by Mel Krieger, tested by Doug Swisher and became a CCI. It wasn't until later that the FFF CICP recognized the value of different styles of casting for different casters and various fishing challenges.
Gordy
* Joan Wulff's FLY CASTING TECHNIQUES, by Joan Wulff, 1987, p. 109 . ( 11 used copies still available, today, at Amazon.com at $15.88.)
** Fly - Fishing PIONEERS & LEGENDS of the Northwest, by Jack W. Berryman, 2006, pp. 114, 115136 - 139. (Today, available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and other sources. New at $29.95, Used as low as $16.04)
*** THE CREEL, July, 1964. Photo courtesy of Robert Wethern, circa 1940's
**** Fly - Fishing PIONEERS & LEGENDS of the Northwest, pp. 190-191.
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