Thank you for sharing.

A true legend.

Someone once asked Lefty "Can you tie a good fly?" Lefty said "I can cast a good fly!"
He can actually do both.....very well.

Thanks for sharing.

Kinda funny Lefty thanking others for sharing their lives with him. He so unselfishly shared so much with so many for as long as I can remember. A true American treasure! His Deceiver is one of the greatest flies ever created.

Thanks for posting; I didn't know. I occasionally refer to Lefty's casting videos to learn fly casting techniques that are less stressful. Don't know that I could have continued my almost daily routine of fly casting without Lefty's instruction.

A fly shop owner I used to know told me once he had a wild hair and called Lefty one evening to ask him something. He was surprised when Lefty answered the phone and said "you answer your own phone?". Lefty just laughed and asked him who in the hell else would answer his phone. Sid said they had a lengthy, rambling conversation for over an hour, and when he apologised for taking up Lefty's time, he was told "no problem, I'm not paying for this call". That certainly fit in with what I had heard from other people, that Lefty was one of the most approachable "celebrities" you would ever meet. I read in Lefty's autobiography "My Life Was This Big", an account of when he first took up the position of director of the Metropolitan Fishing Tournament in Florida. Joe Brooks had told him that many of those saltwater captains were pretty arrogant, and he would really have to do something to impress them if he wanted to get their attention. So he laid out 85 feet of fly line on the ground, and then picked it up and cast it without using the rod, only the line itself. I have a good friend who was one of those captains, and he was there that day. He said he had never seen anybody cast like Lefty.

Larry

About 15 years ago I went to a local bluegill pond and when I arrived, on the other side of the pond, there was Lefty teaching casting to a husband and wife....Now I instantly recognized him as he's somewhat unique looking, I knew he lived just about 5 miles away from where I live, and I had read his books and watched his videos. I thought, 'I'll just ignore them as if I was famous I wouldn't want people bugging me all the time.' So I stayed on my side of the pond and caught fish....well about 20 minutes later the casting session ended and the couple left....Lefty started making his way around the pond TOWARD ME....needless to say I'm thinking 'Uh Oh, maybe I'm doing something wrong'....Lefty walked up and looked at me, then my rod, then he said, 'Do you like catching bass as well?' I looked at him wondering if it was a trick question and said, 'absolutely.'...he said, have you ever been to the ponds behind county home (a place not 3 miles from where we were)...I said 'no', and he told he how to get there and which flies to use....and then he left...no big deal, just two fishermen talking.....needless to say five minutes after he left I jumped into my car and drove to county home, found the ponds and caught 4 or 5 bass. Kind and unassuming fellow that I'd sure like to run into again!