Gary LaFontaine's Flies

[Byron haugh]

I think he misunderstood the "I didn't want to offend ..." part of you post.

I agree 100% with your assessment of GF -- a giant among authors and researchers. I also agree that some of his patterns are just a bit too far out there for my tastes.

Red,
You may be right about Cheech's response. I thought I was pretty clear that I didn't want to "hijack" a thread NOT about LaFontaine and offend the author of that thread by going on about my thoughts concerning LaFontaine, but thought better to start a new thread.

I personally would not tie or fish some of his patterns, but have sure learned a lot about trout behavior and insects from his work. I also developed a new way of observing flies from some of his explanations of critical thinking about patterns and what they impart to the trout when on the water.

Here's a very brief example. The Sparkle Dun is probably my favorite dry fly of all patterns/styles.
In this excerpt, Gary is talking instead about it's sister, the Compara Dun, but, in just a few words, he explains why the pattern may be so successful:

This is from "The Dry Fly - New angles":