PAPER PUBLICATIONS

The Double and Single Haul Publications

(A Historical Perspective by Derek Giles – Editor)

‘Single Haul’, was the official newsletter of the Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club. It twinned with ‘Double Haul’ which was published for the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum, an event conceived and produced annually by volunteer members of the Izaak Walton Club.

A newsletter entitled ‘Izaac Walton Trout Club’ (yes! that was the original spelling) was penned and issued by Don Moore on January 29th, 1971. It was a one-page photocopied newsletter which noted the main speaker invited to the club’s inaugural club meeting, Mr. Alf. Walker was unable to attend due to a twenty-five-year record snowstorm. Instead, an impromptu talk on Atlantic salmon was given by Mr. Hans Petersen., who at one time owned the largest salmon hatchery in Europe.

The club officers decided in 1976 that a new format was required in order that the newsletter contain more information about the sport. To this end, the membership was asked to submit names for a new publication. From more than sixty submissions, the name “Double Haul “was chosen by vote. The analogy of extending your cast and the newsletter “reaching forward” was implicit in the name. The first edition of this new format was published in December 1976 and contained 27 pages. Four issues per annum were produced as a bi-monthly issue during the club’s operational season.

While “Double Haul” was still being issued in a photocopied format, it was hoped it would morph into an effective communications tool with each issue improving on the previous one and containing more ‘member contributions’ reporting on local and provincial wide concerns.

As with all volunteer organizations, members have other commitments and while Double Haul had a mailing deadline two weeks ahead of upcoming club meetings, sometimes it didn’t quite make it. As a result, the club executive decided in 1978 to introduce an ‘interim’ newsletter between issues of Double Haul and named it “Single Haul”. Concurrently, a study was undertaken to investigate changing the Double Haul to a booklet style format. At the 1979 Forum the new and much improved “Double Haul” was introduced in  booklet format to be published quarterly. Meanwhile the new “Single Haul” was to be produced monthly from May to September with some 8 to 10 issues per annum.

Club records show that the first editor of the publication named “Single Haul” was Dan Jarrell in the 1978-79 club year.

During 1987, issues of Double Haul appeared less frequently. Consequently, it was decided that Double Haul would become a onetime only issue, prepared annually for our forum. That policy continued up until 2011 when it appeared to cease publication.

In 2006 and 2007 there were constant requests at club meetings by Bob Kuehnbaum for a new editor of Single Haul to step up to the plate. Bob and others had kept Single Haul going for months in the absence of a full-time scribe.

I was interested, but my commitment to four growing daughters, a day job and other interests veered me away from the task. In 2007 however, with retirement on the horizon, I approached Bob and indicated I’d be happy to take on the job. In keeping with the times, I thought I’d move the newsletter into a digital format but expressed my total lack of desktop publishing skills. Retiring in 2008, I felt I could address that. So, in October 2008, after many hours at the Apple Store, Yorkdale with their so called “geniuses”, the first digital copy was issued.

Aside from enhancing the newsletter with a more visually appealing format, the reduced cost in Emailing issues, created significant savings in postage costs. As a result, the club was able to reduce annual membership fees by $10 a year and save some trees.

At an executive meeting in May 2013 Bob Kuehnbaum suggested with our new website under construction and considering fly fishing blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other digital references available online, that the function of  Single Haul was becoming obsolete. As current editor, I supported this view wholeheartedly explaining how difficult it had become in recent years eliciting content from club members. Therefore, as of 2013, there have been no further issues of Single Haul issued.

My thanks to Cec Swannell, Peter Hurst and Elliott Deighton for their help in researching this history.

Derek Giles, Editor, June 2013