Lefty Tells It Like It Is

“You’ve got sorry loops on your backcast,” Lefty said to one fly casting clinic participant.  Later in the day, Lefty told Chris Santella that his backcast was “sorry” as well.  No matter.  Lefty Kreh’s audience listens because of his “rock star cachet” in the fly fishing world, writes Santella for the New York Times.

At a recent clinic Freeport, Maine, the 87-year-old was still teaching and casting 90 feet (without a double haul, points out Lefty).  Even though he is still making public appearances and going on fishing trips to far-flung environs, Lefty has not lost his passion—as seen in his sometimes unvarnished criticism.  When one caster blamed the length of the rod, he removed the tip of the rod, let a perfect 60 foot cast fly and said, “The length of the rod doesn’t mean a damn thing.”