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Kreh autographs photographs for Michael Smith, Darin Gillenwater and King Montgomery

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Famous fisherman visits Floyd

Lefty Kreh’s life sounds like an Indiana Jones movie. He’s not a swashbuckling archeologist, but he has had dramatic adventures all over the globe.
Kreh is a renowned fisherman. He had fished in all 50 states and several countries in South America and Europe.
Kreh stopped in Floyd County recently, en route to a multi-day angling expedition on the New River. Mike Smith and Darin Gillenwater of Greasy Creek Outfitters in Willis and King Montgomery of Burke were in the fishing party.
Montgomery is an outdoor/travel writer and photographer. He plans a magazine article on Kreh and the local fishing trip.
Kreh, who is a spry 83 years old, has been fishing for 78 years. “My father died in 1932,” Kreh recalls.
“That was during the Depression. I had to set out bait lines at night to catch catfish.
“I’d sell them for ten cents a pound. I bought my clothes and lunch that way.”
He served in World War II and was involved in a battle with Germans at a concentration camp. After the war he worked at Fort Detrick, in Maryland, growing anthrax.
Three workers at Fort Detrick were accidentally infected. Two of them died.
Kreh was the only one who survived. “Anthrax often gets more virulent after growing in the body,” he noted.
“So they still have what they took out of my body. That sub strain is known as BVK (for Bernard Victor Kreh).”
His fishing adventures haven’t always been a lazy idyll on the riverbank. “I’ve been in three plane crashes, two in Alaska, one in Maine.
“I’ve been chased by grizzly bears. Twice I’ve been in bad storms.
“Once, in the Bahamas, our boat was taking on water and all we had to bail with was a half-gallon Clorox bottle. Luckily, we came upon a sand bar before we sank.”