I?ve been waiting for Superman to get back to post this, ?cause I think he might have an opinion that I would like to hear?

What do you all make of the guys like Gary LaFontaine and Vince Marinaro whose ideas about fly-fishing have been so different from the rest of the world?s that they have been ridiculed unmercifully. You can still get a major flame war started by claiming on any of the major FF websites that caddis pupa propel themselves to the surface surrounded by an air bubble, and I still read in major fishing mags (yeah, I still read them once in a while) the same old story about caddis larva (yeah I know) rocketing themselves towards the surface like a missile and providing little opportunity for the fisherman to catch fish with them. The things that some people call thorax style dry flies are abominations. While I have yet to tie any (thorax style flies) that were very good, clipping the hackle off the bottom of a traditional fly hardly makes it thorax style.

So where do these two in particular, and any of the other radicals you can think of , where do they stand today? Are they still heretics? Are they pioneers? Are they just one step in the continuing evolution of fly-fishing knowledge?

I hope this doesn?t turn ugly? I really am interested in understanding how our knowledge of fish and insect behavior and the tools and tactics needed to catch them is growing, and the influence of individuals in that process.

Thanks,
ED