Customer Reviews

Caddisflies

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I'm sitting here looking at the fly fishing books in my collection. If I had to pick out the one that has helped me catch the most trout, it would be Caddisflies. This book, since its publication in the early 1980's, has changed the way people fly fish. Before it came out, caddisflies were a mystery. This is the most important insect on our trout streams, but fly fishermen were using the wrong flies and the wrong tactics -- and, to raise the frustration level even higher, they knew little about the basic life cycle. Start just with the flies. The Sparkle Pupa series were the first patterns to use Antron (a DuPont tri-lobal fiber) and they mimicked the bright air carried by the emerging insect. These are miracle flies. They'll catch trout after trout, at times when every other patterns fail completely. Caddisflies is a "dual" book. A wonderful fly fishing book, but also a great scientific work. It is quoted by professional entomologists in their papers. It is a basic volume that all anglers should read. By the way, my opinion is widely shared. Robert Berls, in his 1989 article in Trout Magazine listing the best fly fishing books of the last thirty years, included Caddisflies and called it the greatest angling entomology of all time.

Gary LaFontaine died this year. A great shame...but he has left behind a body of work that enriches us all.

This book is where it started: and this is how a skillful observer of nature put his scientific skill to practical application.

Caddis may well be the major trout food (heresy - cry the mayfly lovers) but Mr. LaFontaine has the primary research and the citations to scientific publications to back up his position.

The definitive study of Caddisflies. I've owned it for years. . .and two years ago I was repeatedly skunked by a massive evening hatch of black micro-caddis on a lake in Oregon.

I happened to mention the problem to a guide this last spring. Sure enough, he sent me two sample black micro-caddis (#28) and the page reference from Gary's masterwork where the ANSWER was found. I felt like a fool - I had the answer all along!

Of course, the Emergent Sparkle Pupa, the deep pupa and the use of Antron are brilliant answers to emerging Caddis hatches. They are explained here clearly and they are easy ties - and killing patterns--of Gary's invention.

This is a REFERENCE work as well as a fine how-to book. It has a place in every fiy fisher's library.

Buy the book. Gary LaFontaine can still change the world.

This book is for anyone who wants to understand better why certain patterns work one day and not the next. For all of those died in the wool dry fly fisherman, read this book and you will start fishing below the surface, where most of a trout's diet is taken. This is as much a scientific work as it is a manual on how to take more fish more often. The only negative aspect of this book is that it focuses on the caddis fly (although Mayflies are mentioned). A similar work on Mayflies is needed. All in all though, this is the "Bible" that should be on all of our shelves.

This book is a masterpiece. While it is definitely angler oriented, it is not light weight when it comes to the science. Great attention is given to all aspects of caddis. If you read this book cover to cover you will learn about caddis from the standpoint of biology, including distribution, habitat, reproduction and behavior. You will also learn how to fish caddis patterns. These are the topics you need to master to make fishing caddis patterns work. If you get this book and pay attention, consult it regularly and learn diligently, you will be rewarded. First rate stuff!

As LaFontaine states midway through the book, "The study of caddisflies is the graduate school of an angler's education." His book clearly mirrors both the diversity and complexity of its subject matter - caddisflies. LaFontaine mastery of the bug and how to present it to trout in it's varying life stages is apparent. But the crowning achievement in these pages is the bridge LaFontaine builds between this insect's world and the mind of the angler. It's a bridge every angler must eventually cross in order to master the complex interaction between these bugs and feeding trout. I couldn't really come up with the number of days and the river miles you would need to wade in order to gain the knowledge Lafontaine distills onto paper... but a lifetime wouldn't be a stretch here (wearing out many pairs of wading boots along the way).

The writing takes a no-nonsense approach, but you feel his excitement and willingness to share the insight he has gained with the reader. The expression "doing one's homework" comes to mind when reading Caddisflies. Lafontaine spent ten years of intensive study (and of course fly-fishing) to develop the material and support his observations. As he put it: "It was not writing that took so long... The subject, however, proved to be so fascinating that it deserved much more than just a rehash of the past literature or a smattering of untested opinions."

Lafontaine structures the content into two parts: (1) Tying and Fishing Caddisfly Imitations and (2) The Biology of Caddisflies. The first part of the book is likely as comprehensive and authoritative treatment of tying and fishing caddisfly patterns you'll find published today. Even if you don't seat behind the vise tying these flies, the chapters offer as much "why" as they do "how" (i.e., the thinking behind using a particular material, color, shape).

The second half focuses on the biology of these amazing insects with well over 1200 species of caddisflies in North America. Lafontaine highlights a key attribute leading to their bio-diversity today: "Caddisflies basically owe their diversification in the aquatic world to the ability to make silk. This is the evolutionary tactic, a wonderfully functional tool, that has been used in so many ways to solve problems of dislodgement, food gathering, respiration, and protection." A comprehensive listing of each caddisfly genera provides a great reference. To aid the angler, Lafontanie uses the listing to emphasize the species which are more likely to force a trout into selective feeding.

After reading Caddisflies, I'm not ready to claim I've completed the caddis "graduate school of angling." That claim may come after a couple more readings and application on the water. I can say for certain that my appreciation and understanding of caddisflies has gone up dramatically.

I've read this book twice and refer to it regularly. Gary LoFontaine's dedication to the scientific method, insatiable curiosity, and love of fly fishing make this book an indispensable resource.

This book is definitely one of the classic books on fly fishing and fly tying from the second half of the 20th century. It helped to fracture fly fishing's single minded obsession with may flies and move intelligent fishermen toward a more complete understanding of the trout's complete food menu. The author's emerging pupae imitations became a milestone for new caddis patterns. However, the book lacked meaningful photograhic evidence of the accuracy of the author's patterns. More recent advancements by the likes of Craig Mathews have taken Caddis imitations a full notch further.

I bought this book for my husband who has been flyfishing and tying flies for over 30 years. He has been enthralled with it since it arrived. He said that the book was full of instructions on how to fish the flies and why. Very easy to read and understand.

If you are a trout fisherman this book is a must-have. I wish I had this book 20 years ago. This book goes into great detail in research and tying patterns. Again, this is a must-have book.

Not necessarily the best writing per se, but if you ever wondered: Can a fly-fishing book put forward the synopsis of a novel insight into fly-fishing that does both: (1) helps you catch fish, and concurrently (2) could stand alone as a novel scientific study of trout behavior?

The only book that I have ever read that can answer "yes" is this book.

I would love to hear about other books, maybe Gordon or Hewitt have something out there from the early 1900s (???), but for sure this book is the most original contribution to American fly-fishing in the past 30 years.