Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations 'Lord of the Flies'

'Lord of the Flies' influential in sport's growth
05:00 PM CDT on Saturday, June 28, 2008
By RAY SASSER / The Dallas Morning News
rsasser@dallasnews.com

Bernard Victor "Lefty" Kreh is a small man who casts a long shadow. Ask him what he does for a living and he'll probably says he's an outdoor writer, but he's really more of a teacher. His insatiable desire to acquire and pass along knowledge has done more to popularize fly fishing in America than any other factor.

In Dallas recently to promote a new book, Kreh, 83, stood for four hours in sweltering heat, giving fly casting lessons to a local fly fishing group. He walked with a limp and a crutch, the result of a fall that separated his kneecap from his knee, but he'd been on two fishing trips since the accident.
Dubbed "Lefty" as a youth baseball player, Lefty is really ambidextrous. He does most of his casting with his right hand these days. "I kind of wore my left elbow out," he admits with a snorting laugh. He once joked that he played sports left-handed so he wouldn't have to go through life as Bernard Victor Kreh.

The book, All The Best, Celebrating Lefty Kreh (available in Dallas through Tailwaters Fly Fishing Company or Collectors Covey), is an anomaly for Lefty because he didn't write this one. Friends wrote most of it. His friends are the Who's Who of fly fishing, from Flip Pallot and Bob Clouser to John Randolph and Nick Lyons.

Kreh has written about 30 books, mostly on the art of fly casting and fly fishing. Always eager to embrace technology, he's wrapping up a lavishly illustrated photo book on how to cast a fly line. Hundreds of sequenced images illustrate the mechanics of a cast like no book has done before.
Here are excerpts from a conversation with the Lord of the Flies:
What do you want people to know about fly fishing?
Of all the kinds of fishing I've done – and I've done them all – fly fishing is the most fun, but only when the conditions are right. When the wind is blowing and it's miserable out, it's a whole lot more practical to use casting or spinning gear. Despite the impression that I'm only a fly fisherman, I use all kinds of tackle – whatever the situation dictates. Most of the time, flies better represent baitfish than do lures with treble hooks. There are many times when fly fishing will work better than anything. When other lures spook fish in shallow water, the fly lands as quiet as a mouse walking on cotton. Also, the casting is fun, even when you're not catching fish.

Do you see fly fishing as a growing sport?
Absolutely. And one of the biggest growth segments is women anglers. Women like fly fishing because it's noncompetitive. A successful fly fisherman will go out of his way to tell another fly fisherman what fly or technique he's using to catch fish. You don't see that very often in other forms of fishing. It's a different philosophy. One thing that helps fly fishing growth is the emergence of good quality equipment that's reasonably priced. Most $100 rods are capable of casting better than the person who uses them.

Who's the best fly caster you've ever seen?
Probably Marvin Levine, the guy who designs the interiors of Bass Pro Shops stores. A bunch of guys used to come over to my house and cast, and Marvin was the best. Cathy Beck (teams with her husband, Barry Beck, as a fly fishing writer, photographer and consultant) is one of the most efficient casters I've ever seen. She's cast 105 feet of 5-weight line and seems effortless in doing it.

Who's the best casting instructor you've seen?
Ed Jawarowski, a retired assistant professor of classics at Villanova. A good casting instructor never displays knowledge; he shares it. You must be able to cast with either hand so you can work with either left-handed or right-handed casters. The most important thing is that you've got to be able to duplicate all the bad casts that people make. If you can't make a bad cast, you probably don't know how to correct it. Ed can do those things better than anyone I've seen.

LEFTYISMS
• Common sense ain't that common.
• An expert is a guy with a slide show that he shows more than 10 miles from his house.
• I thought "bill" was a man's name until I got married.
• He thinks his candle will burn brighter if he blows out the other guy's.
• I can teach any woman to cast as long as I'm not married to her.
• Hillbillies use only one fly, and they catch fish. So don't let this thing get too complicated. Half a dozen fly patterns will catch 90 percent of the fish 90 percent of the time.
• Casting is simple. And clocks ain't got a damn thing to do with it. If you did that 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock stuff all day, your arm would fall off.

I have a fly fishing instructional DVD from Lefty. I have watched it a bunch of times and it's very helpful. It' how I began to learn to haul. I'm still lousy at double hauling and in fact fly fishing in general but I'm having fun with it.

I still think however the GW is our resident "Lord of the Flies" even if he refuses to claim the title.

George, how to you learn to fly fish, did someone teach you or did you learn on your own? I realize that it takes years of practice but I was just curious how you learned.

Jeff, same as you....Lefty has been my VCR and DVD mentor for many years. He is now associated with Temple Fork Outfitters who are donating two starter flyrod combo kits, with reel and line and case for the silent auction at the upcoming conference.

The real deal is a silent auction "cetificate" of choice for any TFO flyrod in their catalog.
Bring money...

Proceeds for this auction are to benefit Eric West and Dr. Willis's South Dskota State Univerity Wildlife and Fisheries scholorship fund.

Brandon Powers, a TAMU fisheries bilogist and Pro Staff for TFO will be on hand at the conference to help me out...be nice and he might help your double haul...

George,

I saw the SUBJECT "Lord of the Flies" and I thought you'd been snooping around my basement door today!

(Great post about "Lefty -- I hope I'm not going to ruin it.)

I walked out my basement door this evening to feed the chickens and fish. I was assaulted by a very serious overpowering odor.

My nose quickly found one of my chicken/fish feed cans. I looked in the can. It looked kind of like creamed corn, but it was writhing. There were a bunch of big dead flies floating on top.

It was hot over the weekend, and it rained this evening. I still have a few winter trout in the pond, and I caught one on Friday evening. She was full of eggs, which I put in this particular feed can -- thinking I might try the rather large trout eggs as bait on Saturday morning. I forgot. We had a thunderstorm this evening that dropped about 3/4 inch of rain in the can that had been sitting out in the sun.

The "creamed corn" was a mix of big maggots, trout eggs, and tonight's rain. Not a good combination, unless maybe you like Sicilian Casu Marzu.

you need to chum for Zombie Carp?

Did someone say maggots?

George,
I ended up buying the TFO rig you suggested from burlfish.com.
I gave it a try last night, and boy do I need some serious help!
I am going to bring it down to the conference, not necessarily into the convention, unless you would like me to, but mainly for after the convention to practice at LL2. Hopefully Bob doesnt have any trees in the vicinity!

Nate:

You can stand on the driveway between the 2 big ponds and have flat water on your 6 that shouldn't interfere with your backcast.

Nate, I'll give some pointers but really don't want to teach you my bad casting habits so I'll ask Brandon - he's the expert.

We want you you show up the other guys at Lusk's place after the confernce...

That's not going to happen.

Atta boy, Chris ...............you tell 'em.

Chris,
you catch 'em and I will clean 'em!
I dont think I am going to be doing too much catching with the new flyrod anytime soon. At this point I can cast about 14' and the orange line goes farther than the clear line.