While fishing with a store-bought Octopus fly pattern in Norway a few weeks ago, I reflected on my inability (at least for now) to tie my own flies. It has just been faster to go online and buy them instead of crafting them myself. This will, hopefully, be the next step in my love of fly fishing.
When I looked at the Octopus fly, I thought of the main type of fly I had in my tackle box, in many different sizes. All of them were “Deceivers” and most of them were “Lefty’s Deceiver”. I decided to research where the name came from because I had no idea. The Deceiver part was easy to figure out but what was the “Lefty”?
It was fun to research this and read about the original creator, Lefty Kreh, as well as his life story. He was an incredibly accomplished outdoorsman, fly fisher and author. Looking at his bio has given me maybe 10 books I want to read.
Not only an expert angler, but Lefty was also a friend and mentor to an entire generation of fly fishers.
He was born in 1925 in Frederick, Maryland. He lost his father who had taught him much about the outdoors when he was 8 from an accident. It’s 1925 and the world isn’t exactly in a great place. Their family struggled to get by and relied on government relief as many did. As Lefty put it, they were so poor that they did not have enough “to buy a mosquito underpants.” He hunted and fished in the nearby woods/waters to help feed the family.
He had an interesting personal background after school, serving in the US Army in the Battle of the Bulge and then ending up at the US Bioweapons Lab where he was infected with Antrax. He was the only one of the soldiers to survive and the strain he was infected with was named BVK-I after him. Fishing is always full of stories, most told with a rod or a beer in your hand, but Lefty’s personal story would be impossible to beat.
He served as a guide for the well-known fly fisher Joe Brooks. In 1965, he moved to Miami and appointed as the director of the Metropolitan Fishing Tournament.
In the fall of 1965, Kreh was scheduled to speak at a local fishing club meeting in Miami. New to the job, and unknown to the local fishing community, he was anxious to drum up interest in the Fishing Tournament. He started speaking, but the audience’s disinterest became apparent. He was keen to win over the crowd and impress the club members most of whom thought their knowledge far exceeded his. He stopped talking mid-sentence asked someone in the crowd to borrow their rod/reel.
Deftly stripping the line from the reel without assembling the rod, the crowd gazed on in bemusement as Lefty started to false cast without a rod. He fed line through his fingers until he held 30 feet in the air, then shot another 30 feet of line. It fell in a pile on the auditorium floor when it struck the far wall. The stunt showed the audience how much they could learn from him.
He favored his left hand in sports. However, he customarily fly-casted with his right hand because he tore his bicep when he was young flipping a mattress. He said it that worked to his advantage, as it made it easier for him to teach casting to right-handers. He was a catch and release guy.
He is the history and developer behind the “Lefty’s Deceiver”. The Deceiver is one of the best, if not the best, Saltwater fly out there. I have probably 20 different colors and sizes in my box. It is so well thought of that it was honored by the US Postal Service with a postage stamp.
Lefty’s book, Fly Fishing in Salt Water, is widely regarded as one of the best books on SW fishing. He is recognized for his contribution to fly fishing with a Lifetime Contribution Award from the North American Fly Tackle Trade Association and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sportfishing Association.
He wrote for several popular fishing magazines and outdoor publications and he was a talented photographer. He also collaborated to design several rods, playing a pivotal role in the creation of the BVK and Lefty Kreh series.
Lefty died in 2018 at the age of 93 in Cockeysville, Maryland. I wish I had met him and had the chance to fish with him. It would have been an incredible fun, interesting and educational day on the water. The stories he would have told.