For more than 50 years as an outdoor writer and fly fishing instructor, Lefty Kreh touched more lives and converted more people to fly fishing than anyone ever has or ever likely will. He was truly a servant to the fly fishing community, having given selflessly with his teaching skills, innovations and humor, and adding immeasurably to the level of enjoyment and satisfaction that many of us have experienced from the sport of fly fishing.
Lefty’s writing career began part-time in 1952 with a newspaper outdoor column and has progressed to include articles in many of the major outdoor publications and fly fishing periodicals. He authored, collaborated on, or contributed to more than 20 books. Some of the most notable and most recent are: Fly Fishing in Salt Water, Fishing the Flats, Lefty’s Little Library, Lefty Kreh’s Longer Fly Casting, Lefty Kreh’s Ultimate Guide to Fly Fishing, Lefty Kreh’s Presenting the Fly and Basic Fly Fishing: All the Skills and Gear You Need to Get Started. His DVDs include Lessons with Lefty, The Best of Lefty’s Tips and Lefty Kreh on Fly Casting, but his Blu-ray, The Complete Cast, is arguably the best around.
There is an old view of fly fishing that has circulated around the sport fishing community for too many years that fly fishing is an “elitist” sport. This view, which has long been troublesome for Lefty, has been perpetuated, in large part, by the fact that fly fishing gear was very expensive. Through the vision and efforts of TFO and other companies, a big out lay of cash is no longer required.
Lefty was the lead member of the Temple Fork Outfitters rod design team before he passed and he was a key contributor to the TFO mission to build high-performance rods at an affordable price. And while we move forward in our mission, our friend and mentor is greatly missed.
To read more about Lefty and the beginnings of Temple Fork Outfitters, read Rick Pope’s perspective piece on Lefty here.
