Custom made weight forward floating lines.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Many years ago two of my older fly fishing friends, who are world class fly fishers, used to make their own custom weight forward floating fly lines.

The only reason I knew about this was the fact that I would get some of the products for them to make these lines.

They would take a double taper line with a leader and fly and then cast it with more or less line out from the tip.

When they felt they had the exact right amount of line out beyond the tip they would stop casting and lay the rod down on the grass and go out and mark and cut the fly line at the tip top end of the fly rod.

Each rod has different power or action and each caster has a different casting style.

Then they would take a level floating running line and splice it to the cut off section of the double taper line.

With this one double taper line and two running lines they could make up two custom fitted weight forward floating fly lines.

This was Charles L Campana and the late Charles L von Geldern, biologist for CA DF&G, both of Sacramento, who were old friends and fishing partners.

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[Darian]

Like a lot of guys who fished Salmon/Steelhead during the 60's/70's on the coast, I made up a few shooting head lines by cutting double tapers in two and using Amnesia or some other mono as a running line. They came in handy for casting in the larger estuaries. Not much help in the smaller streams, tho. ;)

Back then, double tapered lines were made in floating, sink-tips and full sinking models. But, for smaller lagoons and creeks, I finally settled on a weight forward, full sinking line.... :D

[Charlie S]

The strides made in development of fly fishing equipment and accessories is amazing Bill. Your post brought back memories of watch Grant King and a few others experiment with shooting heads in the 50's, having only Sunset lines to work with then and only Sunset mono as a "running" line. When Amnesia first came out it was heralded as the finest thing ever invented for distance casting for anglers. It's good to think back and makes me, for one, appreciate what we have now. The good old days might have had super great fishing compared to now but we have it made with the "other" stuff. Funny thing is, I still fish with my old Pfleuger Fly Reel, US made, in 1498 size...banged a lot of fingers trying to slow down fish until an old timer showed me how to attach a piece of leather to the reel to use to act as a drag....LOL

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes, they use to make all kinds of double taper fly lines years ago as Darian mentioned.

Double taperfull floater, full sinking and even ones with sinktips on both ends, I think.

I think there was a double taper that had one half that was floating and one half that was sinking so you could turn it around and have both lines.

Today they make only double tapers in full floating and mostly in smaller sizes for trout.

[Larry S]

You'll see a lot of this ingenuity in "Rivers of a Lost Coast." Must-see viewing for
all salmon/steelhead folks. A bit of a downer, tho.
Best,
Larry S

[Ralph]

This was Charles L Campana and the late Charles L von Geldern, biologist for CA DF&G, both of Sacramento, who were old friends and fishing partners.

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Chuck (von Geldern) is one of the unsung heroes of California's fly fishing community. He and I would build our own flylines and have casting games. Chuck always won. When I went on a crusade to get catch and release "Wild Trout" status for the EF Carson I ran into a brick wall with both CalTrout (of which I was on the board of directors at the time) and Fish and Game. It was assumed that "Wild Trout" waters had to be roadside and that anything that required a 20 minute walk was too remote to need special regulations.

From out of left field, Chuck (who worked for fish and game) arranged a meeting with the director, John Dienstadt (the Wild Trout guy), and some key commissioners for a sight tour. We spent three days camping on the river, fishing, hanging in the hot springs, getting very drunk, and making legislation. On the spot it was decided that the river would get Wild Trout status which would not only provide a great fishery but would force California to fight Nevada's proposal to build the Watasheamu Dam in Gardnerville which would have made a reservoir that would have backed all the way into Markleeville.

There have been several articles written that have mistakenly given me credit for saving the Carson. It wasn't me, it was Chuck.

[OceanSunfish]

Ralph,

Great story. I wish something similar would happen to save the delta and those rivers that flow to it....

Thanks for sharing.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Wonderful Ralph.....small world.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

You'll see a lot of this ingenuity in "Rivers of a Lost Coast." Must-see viewing for
all salmon/steelhead folks. A bit of a downer, tho.
Best,
Larry S

Larry

'Rivers of a Lost Coast' is the top selling DVD in the history of our shop.

I am so happy that much of this old history was saved and told.

Anyone who has any feelings for steelhead or salmon should see this great movie.


PS: I am in the movie in several old movie clips only because I was lucky enough to fish with old timer Joe Shirshac who always took still photos and movies. They used lots of Joe's old 8 m/m footage in the production.

Joe is still fly fishing locally, mostly for Stripers from a boat @ 88 years old.

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[MJC]

This a great thread and I've enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for posting it Bill.

I've had a great deal of enjoyment making my own shooting heads using the methods Bill described in the first post. I started doing this after D. Blanton had a 2 part article on shooting heads in Fly Fisherman magazine in the late 70's.

Now we do have all manner of cool lines that an angler can just buy and usually be pretty dialed in but sometimes I think something is missed by not "doing it for yourself".

[Larry S]

For the Kiene folks that don't recognize the "MJC" handle, this is Poppy from the
Red Shed Fly Shop on Idaho's Clearwater River. Both Bill K and Poppy are not only
among the spey/switch rod gang's best friends and resources, they are also true
stewards for our finny friends and their environs.
We are so fortunate that they are with us.
Best to all,
Larry S