'Lord of the Flies' popularizes sport of fly-fishing

Absolutely. And one of the biggest growth segments is women anglers. Women like fly-fishing because it's noncompetitive. A successful fly fisherman will go out of his way to tell another fly fisherman what fly or technique he's using to catch fish. You don't see that very often in other forms of fishing. It's a different philosophy. One thing that helps fly-fishing growth is the emergence of good quality equipment that's reasonably priced. Most $100 rods are capable of casting better than the person who uses them.

Question: Who's the best fly caster you've ever seen?

Probably Marvin Levine, the guy who designs the interiors of Bass Pro Shops stores. A bunch of guys used to come over to my house and cast, and Marvin was the best.

Question: Who's the best casting instructor you've seen?

Ed Jawarowski, a retired assistant professor of classics at Villanova. A good casting instructor never displays knowledge; he shares it. You must be able to cast with either hand so you can work with either left-handed or right-handed casters. The most important thing is that you've got to be able to duplicate all the bad casts that people make. If you can't make a bad cast, you probably don't know how to correct it. Ed can do those things better than anyone I've seen.

Leftyisms

Selected wit and wisdom of fly fisherman and writer Bernard Victor Lefty Kreh:

• Common sense ain't that common.

• An expert is a guy with a slide show that he shows more than 10 miles from his house.

• I thought bill was a man's name until I got married.

• He thinks his candle will burn brighter if he blows out the other guy's.

• I can teach any woman to cast as long as I'm not married to her.

• Hillbillies use only one fly, and they catch fish. So don't let this thing get too complicated. Half a dozen fly patterns will catch 90 percent of the fish 90 percent of the time.

• Casting is simple. And clocks ain't got a damn thing to do with it. If you did that 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock stuff all day, your arm would fall off.