Lefty Kreh is incredible---

[Old #art]

Went to the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival this past weekend. One of the things I wanted to make sure I did was to listen and watch Lefty give a demo and talk on his casting. He was scheduled to do this 4 times during the festival-2 on Sat and 2 on Sun. Even though the last 3 classes were a repeat of the first I went to all 4 of them. The man is absolutely amazing, to say the least. Conditions were horrible on Saturday with 20-25 mile an hour plus winds. His casting is effortless !! Even with the wind he could do things with the line that an "expert" caster couldn't do. Like lay a straight line out 40 feet on the casting pool and have the leader and 5 feet of the line flip to the left between two people--against that wind. He said where the line was going to go before he made the cast. And then he did it a second time, same way so it was no fluke. And then, Sat afternoon after the second class, I had a chance to have a few minutes of one-on-one instruction with him.

In all of my 55 plus years of using a flyrod, I have never had a casting lesson, never watched a video, or tried to use a book. This was a first for me and to do it with someone of that calibre is truly inspiring. Now I have to get out on the water and practice what I learned from him. Wont be any fishing for a while. Just practice, practice practice until I can undo all of my bad habits. Cant wait.

George

[Ron Eagle Elk]

George,

After all those self taught years, watching someone like Lefty lay out a line is just incredible. Congrats on garnering some time with him.

REE

[HCR]

If Lefty's not the best, he's sure got everyone else beat for 2nd.

[James Smith]

I still remember vividly the first time I met Lefty and watched him cast. He took the top section of a four piece rod and laid out the full length of fly line; simply amazing. It's always fun to watch him entise some young buck to come up in front of the croud and show his stuff. There's always one willing to step up to the challenge and then Lefty will say something like, "Have you ever looked at your backcast? When the guy answers no, Lefty will say "Man I don't blame you, it's hard to watch?" It's all done in fun and he always takes the time to talk with folks and willingly shares his knowledge. Lefty's a real character and wonderful ambassador for fly fishing.

Jim Smith

[pillcaster]

I saw him on Sunday, very entertaining. He asked for volunteers to come forward and a man pushed his son forward and lefty said "Dad's too chickenshit". A lady came up and he had her cast and he said "You didnt listen to a damn word I said". You would have enjoyed Ed Jaworowski, also, cast 50 ft with 2 fingers and could hook or "slice" the line either way he wanted, plus could do it by degrees, ie a draw or a hook. I took his class Sunday AM and he spent 3 hours with the 4 of us, very informative.

[Thunderthumbs]

I'm hoping to get Lefty on a podcast!

TT.