Letters from Mary

“Letters from Mary” will be a monthly column featuring the correspondence of pioneering fishing and tackle historian Mary Kefover Kelly. Mary began researching the history of fishing in the mid-1960s and dedicated most of the next four decades of her life to the subject. She corresponded with most of the notable anglers and writers of the day, and most importantly, kept copies of all her correspondence — approximately 5000 pages worth. Thanks to the archive’s caretake, Dr. John Elder, these letters are being curated into a series of books highlighting the depth of knowledge found in her correspondence. This letter from 1977 to Mary was written by the late Myron Gregory, a legendary tournament caster. It details in brief his life, as well as his interest in the history of fly lines. Many typos in the original three page letter have been fixed to make the letter more readable. The first line about Myron’s typewriter was written in pencil. — Ed.

LETTERS FROM MARY:
The Correspondence of mary kefover kelly Letter from Myron Gregory to Mary Kelly dated Feb. 24, 1977

…..My skill as a caster put me in contact with others casters in the world. Hence when the NAACC (National Association of Angling and Casting Clubs) now the ACA (American Casting Association) got interested in 1952 to try and form a world casting organization — I was in on the deal from the start. The ICF (International Casting Federation) as formed as a reality in Sept. 1954 in Rotterdam, Holland. I was first President and remained as such until after our tournament in Oslo, Norway in Sept. 1961.

Being involved in the formation — handling the many problems — the language and custom barriers — I was a busy beaver and my casting ability declined as a results — but still always a potential winner up to and including 1961. My correspondence was extremely heavy — and requests were many — particularly for both fishing and tournament lines. It nearly always meant me requesting detailed info about fly lines — as I’d explain — there were several companies — each made a HCH — but no two HCH lines from different companies would work the same on the same rod due to differences in their weights — due to lengths of tapers — diameters of lines. It was nearly always oil silk — not nylon or Dacron or a S.A plastic line. Finally I wrote the late Jack Holmes then Ex. Sect. of the AFTMA [American Fishing Tackle Manufacturer’s Association] if the industry would not be interested in forming a new fly line standard based on weight and dispose of the old meaningless size standard then in existence. Jack sent my letter on to Jack Dougherty, Then Pres. of AFTMA and also V.P. of Gladding Line Co. Jack D. wrote me direct — “Go ahead, Myron, anything would be better than what we have now, and if anyone can work out an acceptable weight standard, you can do it.” Hence two years later Art Agnew and I put it together [and] that was accepted by AFTMA. Several others of course were in on it — but it was me primarily that did the work of putting it all together in acceptable form. Hence we now have a standard good forever — no matter how they make fly lines of the future — unless they be some invisible beam of some kind…….

To Read the article in its entirety and many great others in the February Issue of Angling Echoes, please visit https://finandflame.com/angling-echoes/ or purchase directly from below.

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