Bernard "Lefty" Kreh was an American fly fisherman, photographer and fly casting instructor who resided most recently in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
19 Facts About Lefty Kreh
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Lefty Kreh was born February 26,1925, in Frederick, Maryland, where he attended Frederick High School.
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Lefty Kreh's parents were Theodore, who died in a basketball accident when Kreh was eight; and Helen M Purdy.
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Lefty Kreh said they barely ate, and always were cold.
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Lefty Kreh was one of the men who helped to take the Ludendorff Bridge from the Germans in the Battle of Remagen.
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Lefty Kreh began fly-fishing in 1947 while serving as a guide for the famous fly fisherman Joe Brooks.
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Lefty Kreh is known throughout to always throw his fish back, keeping the flow in the waters for more fish.
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Lefty Kreh was the retired outdoor editor of The Baltimore Sun and held a staff position on several outdoor magazines.
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Lefty Kreh's Deceiver is an artificial fly commonly categorized as a streamer fly which is fished under the water's surface.
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Lefty Kreh invented the Deceiver fly in the late 1950s as a streamer that would be easy to cast in wind and would not "foul" a common problem for older streamer patterns.
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The original Lefty Kreh's Deceiver was tied in as a white pattern, but fly tiers have recreated the pattern in a variety of colors.
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Lefty Kreh designed the course himself, incorporating dry land, still water and moving water into various casting stations.
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Lefty Kreh called it a "challenge" course, as opposed to a "casting" course, because he included real-world fly-fishing conditions.
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Lefty Kreh received the prestigious "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the American Sportfishing Association, has been honored with the "Lifetime Contribution Award" by the North American Fly Tackle Trade Association, and is in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.
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In 2003 Lefty Kreh was inducted to the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame.
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Lefty Kreh has served a number of years as Senior Advisor to Trout Unlimited, the Federation of Fly Fishers.
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Lefty Kreh was inducted with Mac Brown in the category of recreation into the Fly Fishing Museum of Southern Appalachia Hall of Fame in 2018.
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One of the main characters, "Lefty Kreh Crayfish", is an anthropomorphized crayfish named after the famous fisherman.
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Lefty Kreh died of congestive heart failure at his home in Cockeysville, Maryland, March 14,2018.