I received the following yesterday from Gordy Hill:
A bit of personal fly line history:
As you will doubtless be describing the importance of line taper to loop/line speed at some point, I thought it might be interesting to note that back in the early 60s, we had no clear intermediate lines for some of our salty fly fishing.
Some of us made fly lines out of nylon mono fishing line the forward taper being made of about 40 of graduated mono segments as one would create a leader. Of course, the taper wasnt smooth and the multiple blood knots a pain for many reasons.
Other salty fishers were smarter. A bit later, Flip Pallot created a nylon mono line of heavy material with a taper made by laboriously sanding down the forward end until he had a relatively smooth taper. Dont know if Lefty was involved in that project.
Necessity is the mother of invention (An English Proverb – author uncertain)
Gordy – you bring up a very good point. We are not always limited to just what is available off the shelf. Years ago I was lucky enough to take a class given by Mel Krieger. One of the things Mel did as part of the class was to help each of the students design and assemble a shooting head for the weight of rod they were using that was made for casting streamers into strong winds. The head consisted of a short section of about 20 feet of fast sinking line with a low stretch mono shooting line. It made for easy pick up and could be cast long distances with limited backcast room. Note that the mono in this case was a special low stretch variety designed for fly reels. I’ve been told that using regular monofilament as a shooting or running line can damage a fly reel if the line is wound too tightly on the spool and then contracts over time.
Bruce Richards provides some questions for the group to get us thinking. As usual, send your responses to me and I will pick some to send out to the group in the next few days.
1 Which line will sink faster, one weighing 300 grains, or one weighing 500 grains?
2 – Do fly lines with longer front tapers deliver more delicately than those with short front tapers?
3 Considering modern fly lines, can you throw as tight a loop with a stiff line as with a more supple one?
4 When a very good caster throws a WF line long distances, what is the right amount of overhang?
Next – Continuing with the discussion about fly lines.