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12. HISTORY OF CASTING AND CASTERS
This page will consist of articles about the history of casting and the people who inhabit that history. We will discuss things in the horsehair line days and things in the space age in no particular order. Submissions for inclusion in this history are welcomed.
Copyright 1997-2001 BP Ptrs.
1.HISTORY OF THE DOUBLE HAUL
The first documented description of the double haul known to ye olde author was at the 1934 American Casting Association national tournament in St. Louis Missouri. A Portland Oregon man, Marvin K. Hedge, won the fly rod distance event using a technique that was unknown to the other casters. This was the double haul. At that time the average of the three best of five casts was used to determine the winner and Marvin Hedge averaged 136 5/6 feet with a long cast of 147. As were many of the prominent casters of that era, Marvin Hedge was a tackle rep. The longest winning average before that had been 121 2/3 feet in 1928 and the longest long cast had been 124 in 1931 so it seems that the double haul provided an edge but not a huge edge. However, in following years this changed. By 1937 an average of 176 2/3 with a long cast of 183 was recorded in the national championships. One thing to remember is that these were outdoor contests with the wind helping so some differences could be traced to a brisk favoring wind.
Also, these were bamboo rod figures. In the 1997 nationals the men's event was won by Steve Rajeff with a 182 and the women's with a 137 by Alice Gillibert, which was also a new women's record. Biggest change of course has been the graphite rod. The rod for this event is now 9 feet long versus 9'6" in the thirties. We also have nylon running line now. However, the double haul is still the same and still the name of the distance game. Sometime this year (soon) we will have some new scientific stuff in the tips for experienced casters page about the double haul and the effects of different sequences and timing strategies upon that cast.
1.5 BEGINNINGS OF THE DOUBLE HAUL
Marvin Hedge was the first to bring the double haul before the world in the 1934 Nationals, in August at St. Louis. However he had demonstrated and taught the haul to members of the Golden Gate Club in the summer of 1934 during a week's stay there. He received two pairs of shoes from a member who had a shoe store as his honorarium.Herman Hittenberger, who began competitive casting with his father Carl in the early thirties and was the all accuracy champion at the 1936 Nationals, recalls that there were casters using the haul on the back cast and casters using the haul on the forecast but that he never knew of anyone using the double haul until Marvin Hedge showed it to the Golden Gate club in 1934. Herman remembers that Jules Cuinan, who won the American all around championship in 1931, used the haul on forward casts but not a double haul. And Jim Green, who spent the summer of 1937 traveling with Marvin Hedge to European casting competitions and won some of them, recalls that Marvin Hedge recounted that he first saw the double haul being used by a fisherman on a river. Jack Sparks, a casting champion and journalist of the pre war era, has mentioned that the haul was used as early as 1922 in the San Franciso area.
This is all we have been able to find, so far, on the haul and double haul. Anyone with further information is invited to pass it on. Time is flying. Interestingly enough, it was many years before the casting authors of the forties began to include the haul in their dissertations. Field and Stream magazine published a 1941 manual, for beginning and expert casters with no mention of the haul seven years after it had revolutionized casting.
2. NAMES AT THE CASTING GAMES
Following will be short biographical sketches and memoirs of significant personages in the casting games scene. If I have not included your favorite caster be not afraid to bring it to my attention. These sketches were handy and I took the lazy way out and entered them in the history page not because they are more significant than the others but becauseI found them in one handy place. I am in the process of approaching others for similar entries, including the girls and women who have found these games fascinating and, in the eyes of some participants, made the games more fascinating.
FIFTY FOR FUJITA
Chance does some nice things now and again. Dick Fujita attended his 50th National Tournament, in August, 1998, not far from where he started casting when he was growing up in San Francisco. He has, over the years, earned both the respect and affection of virtually every active tournament caster. His knowledge is shared freely with all of them, as they continually seek his advice. The extent of his influence on the sport and the people who follow it is unknown only to him.
A life member of the American Casting Association, he has twice served as President and for many hears has chaired or served on the By-Laws Committee. Numerous special committees and projects have also claimed his attention. All of our distance casts since the Spring following the breaking of the ACA's steel measuring tape have been measured by tapes he made. Convinced that they would never be accepted, he insisted, early on, that a record cast be measured with two tapes. Only he was surprised that the cast measured exactly the same with both tapes.
Oh, yes. He casts, too. It is somehow fitting that his 50th National be held in San Francisco, since for the accuracy events he has returned to bamboo rods of his own making. (Well not for Bass Bug as yet, but don't be surprised.) Quite competitive in all events, he even improves with age. He won the 5/8 oz. accuracy event in the 1944 National with a then record score of 99. Showing steady improvement, he won the 5/8 oz. accuracy event in the 1996 Canadian Open with 100.
A fisherman also, his current project is to give at least one tarpon some exercise. So far, none of them seems to have his energy, but it has been a wonderful excuse --er, reason -- for new fly tackle.
RENE GILLIBERT
The first nationals I cast were in 1982 in Kentucky. The foundation gave me some money for my plane fare and entry fees. I think I was fifteen. Sometimes, I wish I could still do as well as I did in Lexington. My lowest score was in bass bug and I think I cast a 93. I still remember all of my scores. I cast as an "intermediate" (age 13 through 16) and didn't know what I was doing so I didn't get the jitters. I also remember the banquet. I didn't know that I was going to get all of those medals. I was just there casting. Someone came up and asked how to prounounce my name because I was going to be called. I've cast in every national tournment since then, 16 tournaments in all.
When I started casting, there were no intermediate category casters out here for me to compete against, so in club tournaments I was pretty much competing with the adults. George Rajeff was casting a lot and also Dick Guggenheim. Jon Ray was there and he was very helpful and gave me a plug rod and helped fix up my tackle to make sure it was all in order. Dean Rickard was there with Matt. Kim Witt was also pretty good. Tim Rajeff was real good. Steve had moved way. I went down to the pool and cast with the old timers or cast by myself. People gave me instruction and I picked it up pretty easily. Like plugs for example. I remember picking up a plug rod one morning down in Long Beach and somebody showed me how to cast it and I shot an 89 the first day. By the next year, I was still eligable to cast as an intermediate, but I cast as an adult.
My first gold medal as a man stands out in my mind. I was in Long Beach and I won angler's fly. I remember that Steve cast pretty far and then he watched me. - This was when you had to have a three cast average. - I cast and we were both walking out together. He said, "Wow, that was pretty good." They were reading off the scores, we added them up in our heads and he figured them out before I did. "You beat me, you turkey" he smiled.
HENRY FUJITA
I started out at Stowe Lake (San Francisco, Golden Gate Park). My mother used to take me out there to practice rowing for fishing and then I would cast a little bit, too. I was just a "tag along" to my father., That was his term. He showed me how to cast, but it wasn't like today when you get the arm motion and explanations. He'd just come along and take my arm and move it and say, "Like this...Like this..." And I would try to imitate him. Today everyone is an instructor, but in those days it wasn't that complicated.
Dad's first tournament was in 1936 in Portland when he got the dry fly championship. That was his first national. I think he went up there hoping to get something in the plug but he won the dry fly. He was pretty good in the plug, but he won the dry fly four times. He was best in accuracy events, but cast all events. My first tournament was at Anglers Lodge (Golden Gate Park) in 1939. After we moved to Cleveland, we went to all of the regional tournaments, the Great Lakes and Ohio State. Our club was the East Cleveland Casting Club. We had a bunch of champions there, like Sib Liotta and his whole family cast. They were there in '39. Eddie Braddon was there, too. I remember him well, the way he cast. He had a different style. He'd stand with a cigarette in the middle of his mouth, the slow cast with a little up and down, up and down. A different style.
When we were getting started my brother, Richard, and I cast together in the juvenile division. During the war we never cast together and after that I moved back to the Bay Area and we cast together only at the nationals.I have cast in about seven nationals. I was off for twenty years. When I first was casting the equipment was all bamboo. Then I came back and it was all fiberglass and when I came back the second time, it was all graphite, so I had to get another set. The main thing that changed was the casters, most of them were gone except for Steve and Chris and Zack. (Willson) I knew Zack when;he was a teen ager. The events changed, too. When I started, we just had dry fly, wet fly and the distance events. Trout fly, bass bug and angler's fly were added.
I got involved in tying tournament flies early on. When I was a teenager, I saw that tournament flies were all different qualities, so I standardized them by trimming the flies. Each fly had a spec and John Burdick drew up the blue prints for the dry fly, the wet fly, the distance fly and the salmon fly. Before that anyone could use any fly for any event. There were no rules. When I looked at my fly and then looked at the other guy's fly, I realized that they had to be standardized and I made some samples. My father gave some to Phil Miravalle to test. His reaction was good. Basically, I made all of the flies at the beginning and when I moved out here, my father took over and did it for a long time. Steve and Chris might have made some too. I learned tying at Anglers Lodge as a teenager. Five or six tiers taught me, Jack Horner, Pete Craigie, Les Jacobs and several others. I leaned a little bit from everyone and , like fly casting, you have to practice.
CHRIS KORICH
I started casting in 1970 when I was ten. We just stumbled into it. I obviously got the bug and started coming over to San Francisco tournaments in 1971 with Tony Perry for the ACA registered by mail tournaments. I met Steve and set my goals to beat him and went to my first national in '74 in Toronto. I wrote Myron Gregory and he came and met me in June of that year and gave me a little lesson in the two-handed Salmon fly, his favorite event. My mom invited him up for dinner and he came into the house with a box full of all his reels and stuff and that's how I got the reels to cast in the All-Around in my first national. I practiced ten hours a day, every day. I got sixth in the country. My coach, Tony Perry, took fifth. He was the best on the west coast, other than Steve. I have cast every natioinal since then except for '86 when Jessie was born. She was born the night of the banquet.
The most important thing to share and pass on, for me, was the tremendous mentorship that I received here in the Bay Area from both clubs, initially from Oakland and then San Francisco as I started to cast and compete in those tournaments. Steve was obviously the godson of all the people at Golden Gate as he was the one young kid that was casting. Tim was not really casting then. When I had the chance to meet Steve, finally there was somebody who was close to my age whom I could associate with. Steve had these mentors at Golden Gate and I had these mentors at Oakland. Everyone told me about this kid in San Francisco who was a little older than me and was going to be the next champion, going to inherit the title from Tarantino. So, that was the start of it. Steve was the only guy casting and then I came along and so there were two young guys on each side of the Bay and we struck up a friendhip because of the mutual passion and also the desire to compete. Tim started to take more of an interest because there was someone other than his big brother. Prior to that he was more interested in throwing pine cones and climbing up trees. When I came over to San Francisco, Tim was "Lets go do this. Let's do that. Check this out and go into the woods over there." It was like mad boy scout explorers. I was, "We got to practice. Man, let's practice." Ultimately Tim got hooked by the competitive spirit and the fun of being around other people his age.
As the rivalry started to form, I started to get better and to challenge Steve in the fly accuracy events and that pushed Steve to shoot better scores. What you had all of the sudden was these two kids who were not only casting equal to the adults, but casting ahead of the adults with scores that they hadn't seen before. The 97s and the 98s were great scores and once in a blue moon you would see a 99 or you'd hear of a 100. All of the sudden, Steve would shoot 98s and 99s and then I was shooting 96s and 97s and once in a while 98s. Then he's got to shoot more 100s and the competitive spirit was growing. It was us and a bunch of older guys who were our mentors. It was magical in the sense tha there was this young guy in San Francisco and then I came and I kinda got Tim involved and there were all of these guys to pat us on the back and encourage us and, of course if we got out of line, to whack us over our heads. We were all good kids for the most part. It was the mentorship. We had grandfathers on each side of the Bay. It was what everybody at the club longs for. Every time you see somebody new come out to the club, how long does it take for the old timers to go out there and start giving them lessons? It is a natural thing to want to mentor and pass things on and we were blessed with that on both sides of the Bay.
Those are the things that I remember the most. I could talk all day about the peak moments in the casting career. Probably if there is one casting achievement that stands out for me, the most rewarding thing still to this day and the most exciting and fulfilling moment, was when I finally shot 300 out of 300 in the fly games; the first one ever to do it. That's probably the most rewarding casting achivement because it happend in Oakland and Steve was acutally in the tick chair. When it happened, Steve leaped out of the chair and was as excited or more excited than I was.
Overall, what stands out most of all for me is the mentorhsip, the Phil Miravalles, the Tony Perrys, the Doug Merricks. The period started with Steve, me and Tim and the rivalry that formed through the friendship and the challenge that we put to each other in constantly raising the bar and all of our mentors being mystified by it and us breaking records and things that they thought were not achievable. For me, that was the most enjoyable period.
STEVE RAJEFF
My first national was in 1970 at St Louis, Missouri. I cast in the men's division. It was very hot weather and very humid weather. Having grown up in San Francisco and not experienced the 95 degrees temperature and 95% humidity, it was amazing. I recall I cast pretty well. I was third place in the All Around and I think that I did win angler's fly distance and I was real pleased with that. I remember getting a couple of first places.
Phil Miravelli was there as my coach. "Watch this guy. Look at that guy. Learn from him. Watch what he is doing." Phil coached by pointing out the good casters. "If you can, learn something by watching them. Watch those guys." Phil helped me in all the events, distance events especially, where you must get all the gear ready. It was great having Phil there as my coach. In those years we were still using bamboo two-handed salmon rods and single handed fly rods, although I think I had a fiberglass for angler/s fly.
I just remember meeting a lot of casters who are no longer with us. It was also the first nationals for Canadian participation and I remember meeting Pete Edwards and a lot of his friends from the Toronto area. Overall, the nationals were a lot of fun to go to and see all the different casters' equipment.
It was very exciting for a thirteen year old kid. By age thirteen, I was ready after three years of daily casting and, at probably 150 pounds, I was physically big enough to cast all the accuracy events without a problem and in distance I was coming into the strength and size that it takes to handle most of the events. So anglers fly was something that I was big enough to handle, although certainly as I got older and stronger I was better, but still some of the basic technique was something a thirteen year old could accomplish. It was just a question of practice and coaching from Phil Miravalle and Ted Halvorsen, another old timer who coached me in spinning distance and, I betcha, Myron Gregory gave me a lesson on the double-handed rod. Phil was the expert on the single handed fly distance. Between the various experts at the club helping and just a lot of practice in those years I was able to do pretty good.
The most important and enjoyable thing about tournament casting is the travel and meeting people who also enjoy fishing and casting. It is being able to see the world and seeing friends from around the world in the sport of casting. That has been my biggest payoff.
Profile/Jim Green
By Chris Korich
There are men who accomplish and contribute many things in their lives. Milton James (Jim) Green is one of these men. He was born July 24, 1920 in San Francisco, and since this time has made numerous contributions to the tackle industry and to the sport of casting.
Jim attended various elementary schools as his family moved around California from city to city. By the time he had reached the seventh grade his family had settled in Oakland. In the summers, Jim would venture to Oroville, California where he spent his vacation months on his Aunt and Uncle's fruit ranch. The Feather River was near by and hence his interest in fishing began.
Those were the crude days, when he fished with a willow pole, a line, and a can of worms; a far cry from the custom rods he designs for himself today. Nonetheless he enjoyed fishing very much and would often go camping with his Uncle and cousins. It was at the age of twelve on one of these camping trips that his Uncle first introduced him to fly fishing. Jim enjoyed this very much and began "using the fly" whenever possible. As summer drifted away each year, Jim would return to Oakland to tend his schooling.
Right after Jim started the tenth grade he stumbled onto the sport of casting. Walking through Golden Gate Park In San Francisco one weekend, he spotted some people casting at Stow Lake. Being curious he asked some questions and found out what was going on. Members of the club (the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club) told Jim about an organized casting group in Oakland, a division of the Foothill Sportsmans Club. The casters met at Oakland's Lake Temescal.
It was the very next weekend that Jim arrived at Lake Temescal with tackle in hand. He joined the Oakland Club and began learning the different casting events: the Dry Fly, Wet Fly, 3/8 and 5/8 oz. accuracies, and soon thereafter, the Trout Fly and Salmon Fly distance. Jim enjoyed the fly casting events the most and trained very hard, quickly becoming one of the top casters.
It was in 1938 that Jim received a big break. One of the largest line manufacturers of that time, the Jones Line Company, decided It would be beneficial to have the U.S. represented by an amateur as well as a professional caster at the World Casting Tournament to be held in Paris. At that time, most of the top casters were professional. The Jones Line Company, who sponsored Marvin K. Hedge, one of the world's finest professional casters, asked him to select who he felt was the best amateur hopeful. Hedge decided to base his choice on tournament scores cast during that year.
Jim, up until this point, had only cast on a local level. However, his scores had been extremely respectable for a young man and were shown to Hedge along with others. Hedge finally made his decision and chose Jim to join him on the trip to Paris. Jim, to say the least, was thrilled and began practicing hard for the championships. When it came time to leave, he jumped on a train to New York, where he joined Hedge, and then together they boarded the steamer New Amsterdam which took them to Holland.
Enroute to Paris, Jim and Hedge stopped to cast in a practice event In Belgium where Jim became more familiar with the European events, winning a few in the process.
In Paris, Jim was devastating. Hedge couldn't have made a better choice, for Jim captured every single event and thus won the Amateur All Around Championship. To add to his winnings, he picked up a few medals at a tournament In England and attended his first U.S. National enroute home. Although he cast well at the National, there was much improving to be done If he wanted to compete against the top casters of that time:
Because of changes in the professional and amateur standings, the 1939 National, to be held In San Francisco, was going to be a tremendous competition. Jim had finished school and decided he wanted to move to San Francisco where he could better train for the tournament.
When the Nationals arrived, Jim soundly won the Fly Accuracy All Around against a tremendous field of top competitors. It was here that he earned the respect of many fellow casters and gained the friendship of Phil Miravalle.
In moving to San Francisco, Jim took a job at the Sunset Line and Twine Company. He worked In the Salt Water depart ment where they produced twisted linen fishing lines, the best of that time.
When the war started a few years later, Jim volunteered In the Army. He was placed in the Signal Corps Communications program and soon after was put on active duty. His military career, in which he eventually became a crane operator, loading and unloading war ships, took him from California, to New Orleans, New York, Scotland, England, South Wales, and finally to the port at Le Havre, France during D-Day. He stayedin Le Havre until the war ended and then returned home to California.
After four long years of military service Jim decided, as he put it, "to horse around for awhile." He took a part time job at Winston Rod Company and began practicing his casting again with Phil Miravalle. It was during this "horsing around" period that Jim and Phil discovered the use of monofilament as a shooting line. They quietly Introduced its' use at the '46 Indianapolis National, causing much commotion.
It was at this tournament, using the new line, that Jim captured the Trout Fly Distance with a 149' long cast and a 146' average, an accomplishment which he considered his biggest moment in casting. He also captured the Distance Flies All Around and therefore made the All American Team.
When he returned from Indianapolis he decided to quit his job at Winston and move to Napa, California where he could take in some fishing and hunting. As Jim commented in one of our conversations, "I wasn't exactly what you'd call an ambitious young man."
Ambition or not, Jim was always thinking of ways to improve his fly distance casting. These were the games he really loved. However, he felt his small size had always restricted him.
In preparation for the '47 Long Beach National, Jim decided to do some training. He obtained a two foot long piece of pipe, added a cord handle, and had a friend make some brass sleeves which he could slide on the pipe above his grip. Just as a ball player makes his practice swing with a donut weight on his bat, Jim began making his Trout Fly distance casting motion every morning and every evening, adding brass sleeves as his muscles strengthened.
Along with this special training, Jim knew that if he could somehow speed up his double haul while casting the distance fly, he could make much longer casts. Using a small pulley device in his hand while casting, he achieved the result he was looking for. If he normally could pull three feet of line on a standard haul, with his new invention he could double that amount and hence double his line speed. More line speed, more distance. Jim comments, "I made one mistake. I decided to ask permission of the Tournament Committee before using my pulley invention. That was sure stupid." They threw It out as fast as Jim had brought it in.
Everything not lost, Jim entered the Long Beach National to give it his best. This he did in grand style by winning the Salmon Fly Distance, being the first man in National competition ever to cast this event over 200 feet. Congratulations ran free as he also captured the Distance Flies All Around for the second year in a row. His 206' long cast and 198 2/3' average in the Salmon Fly, and his Distance Flies total of 1063' both broke World Records. Phil Miravalle took the All Distance title and together Jim and Phil, along with another Golden Gate member, Ed Tassi, captured the Fly Accuracy title. Jim also won the Wet Fly event with a perfect round of 100 points. This tournament was the peak of Jim's casting career.
Returning home as a World Record holder, Jim decided it was time to start thinking about his future. He got a job back with his old employer, Sunset Line and Twine, and started experimenting with different manufacturing processes for fly lines.
After developing tapered lead core shooting heads (using a nylon braid over tapered lead, and then an oil finish) he began experimenting with vinyl coatings as a replacement for the oil finish. With regard to the floating line business, no one was really making a line that floated well. In addition, lines were tedious to make for the core (not the outer finish) was tapered and this required a person to sit and wait and every so often cut out strands of nylon from the line being braided.
To solve the first problem of getting the lines to float, Jim began injecting various gases (inducing bubbles) in his vinyl coatings. The bubbles improved dramatically the line's floating characteristics but didn't quite do the job Jim had hoped for. He came across an article written about a company that was manufacturing tiny hollow glass spheres. Jim believed that these tiny spheres could be the answer to getting lines to float.
With regard to the problem of achieving line taper, Jim came up with the thought of using mechanics (through the use of cams) to vary and taper a plastic coating over a level braid instead of the time consuming and expensive process of tapering the line's core. Unfortunately, Jim was never able to test his two ideas for he soon left Sunset to start his own company. (It was around that time that Leon Martuch of Scientific Anglers patented both the plastic tapering technique and the use of glass spheres).
Jim did well with his company, buying monofilament from Du Pont, dying it bright colors, and distributing it throughout the West. He did so well in factthat a company called Sevenstrand, based out of L.A. bought Jim out and hired him.
It was six months later that Jim first got involved in the rod manufacturing business. Sevenstrand had heard about a company up for sale called Fenwick that assembled and sold a good number of fishing rods. The owner of Fenwick, who was one of the largest Garcia Mitchell representatives, was being pressured by Garcia to sell his company because of conflict of interest between Fenwick and Garolai Conolon. Being that Mitchell was the top selling reel in the country, Fenwick's owner chose to protect his Mitchell distributorship and sold Fenwick to Sevenstrand.
The owner of Sevenstrand, Clifford Brignall, offered Jim the management position at Fenwick which he most graciously accepted. Jim ran the Fenwick factory on Bainbridge Island, Washington until Brignall decided to combine Fenwick's operation with Sevenstrand's in L.A. Soon thereafter, Brignall sold Sevenstrand including Fenwick to Henry Clock & Sons (Phil and Ralph).
Under the Clocks, Jim invented, patented and marketed the Feralite Ferrule which started Fenwick rolling. Their big break came when the high-class rod of that time, Silaflex, sold out to Browning. Browning decided to only sell their Silaflex rods through their specialty outlets. This opened the door for rod companies to sell to the accounts which no longer could get Sliaflex. Fenwick was quick to fill this void and really started growing during the 60's.
It was also during the 60's that Jim joined the Long Beach Casting Club. Jim and his lovely wife Carol, (who he married in 1960) cast at local tournaments and became regulars at club functions. It was at the pools that Jim designed many Fenwick rods getting helpful advice from top Long Beach casters like Gil Hokanson and Ed Thomas.
Because of his interest in making the event rules more like actual fishing, he was appointed to the national rules committee. Through his near single handed efforts, Jim developed and promoted three of our present casting events: the Trout Fly Accuracy, the Bass Bug Accuracy, and the Angler's Fly Distance. Jim and Carol together demonstrated these events at National Tournaments in Washington D.C. and Cincinnati in 1988 and hence they were accepted by the delegates of the A.C.A.
Back at Fenwick, business had grown to the point where the Grizzly Fiberglass Company, who had always supplied Fenwick with their blank needs, couldn't handle their demands any longer. For this reason, Grizzly and its owner Don Green (no relation to Jim), merged with Fenwick and combined and enlarged their blank manufacturing operation on Bambridge Island.
Jim and Carol moved to Washington with their daughter Sandy in the late 60's and still live there today. Jim, as most people know, introduced through Fenwick the first graphite rods on the market in 1973. Recently, Jim has designed some exciting new rods made of Boron (a material which he tested even before graphite, but found, at that time, to be too expensive to use in production). Fenwick Woodstream will be introducing some of these new rods at the upcoming AFTMA Tackle Show. Jim's continuing experimentation and development has made him one of the most respected rod designers throughout the world today.
His undying devotion to the sport of casting and the tackle Industry, his numerous and far-reaching contributions and his warm and helpful personality have made Jim Green an outstanding nominee for the Casting Hall of Fame. From Jim, we have all benefited.
(This article appeared in The Creel, the official publication of the American Casting Association, in 1980. Today Jim and Carol Green live, fish and build experimental graphite composite single hand fly rods and spey rods near Asotin Washington, overlooking the Grand Ronde river near its' confluence with the Snake. He rolls them, wraps themand bakes them in his basement, continuing his life long romance with the fly rod.)
Copyright 1997 - 1999 BP Ptrs.
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