After more than 80 years of life with a fly rod in his hand, George Harvey is known as "America's dean of fly fishing."

He has been tying flies on fishing rods for 86 years and has tied more flies than anyone else in the United States.

"I think fishing is the greatest leisure time activity there is," he said.

Harvey, who just celebrated his 91st birthday, caught his first fish at age 5 and has been fishing ever since. He still has a passion for the sport, but is not fishing now because the fish are laying their eggs.

"I'm adamantly against fishing during spawning season -- I think it's wrong to kill lots of fish right after they're born," he said.

Harvey said he started fishing after watching his uncle fly fish.

"One day I just asked him to tie me a fly. I caught my first trout using chicken feathers from my uncle's farm," he said.

Harvey grew up in DuBois. In high school, he ran cross-country and played football.

"I was too small to play football in college, but I don't think football was my gift to the world anyway," he said.

In 1934, Harvey moved to State College to teach the first fly-fishing course in the nation at Penn State. The course is currently called KINES 004 (Principles of Fly Tying and Fly Fishing for Trout).

He said he taught then-Dean of the School of Agriculture Ralph Watts how to fish, and Watts was so impressed that he asked Harvey to start a fly-tying course at the university.

"When I was teaching at Penn State, I taught 72 classes in 68 cities all over Pennsylvania," Harvey said.

Harvey thinks teaching other people how to tie flies is his best accomplishment.

"I've taught two presidents, President Carter and President Eisenhower, how to fish. I have pictures of us fishing together at Spring Creek in my house," he said.

Fly Fishing Club adviser Greg Hoover has known Harvey for 14 years and respects him as a teacher.

"George loves to share his expertise with everyone. He treats his students the same way he treats the U.S. presidents," Hoover said.

Hoover thinks some people at the top of their field try to keep their tricks and secrets to themselves and never pass those abilities on to others. He said Harvey is not one of these people.

"George shares everything he knows. He has a great deal of humility with all his life experiences," he said.

Harvey has written 35 to 40 articles for magazines as well as several books on fly-fishing techniques.

Although he retired from teaching this year, he still lectures to the Fly Fishing Club about once a semester.

Club President Joe Snyder said Harvey does a great job at capturing listeners' attention when he speaks.

"He mixes his fly tying teaching with his colorful stories of things he's done throughout the year," he said.