In one of Goddard’s last books (I think), "The Trout Fly Patterns of John Goddard’, there is an interesting fly. It is called “The Ghost Pupa”.
What I find interesting about the fly is that it is similar in overall concept to LaFontaine’s Sparkle Pupa pattern. It is tied differently, but has a similar effect of enveloping the body of a caddis emerging pupa.
Goddard does not say when he developed the pattern, but he does say he had the idea for many years before finding a suitable yarn to use in the fly’s shroud.
Here is the recipe for his pattern from the book:
[
The body enveloping yarn is tied in at the eye of the hook and is swung around the back of the hook and tied in on the other side of the hook at the eye…
Could it be that LaFontaine’s, ‘Sparkle Pupa’ pattern , looks like Goddard’s?
Regardless, lots of fly patterns look alike but could have been or were created without any knowledge of what someone else did. Maybe it’s a case of sometimes fly tiers/fly fishermen come up with something similar even though they may be or are 000s of miles separating them?
In an article in “The Fly Dresser’s Guild” Goddard says that he modified, and, he believes, improved upon the wonderful flies of LaFontaine by, for one thing, making them easier to tie…
He gives great credit to LaFontaine for the original concept of the veil. Goddard’s pattern came about very much later…in 2001.
An interesting aside:
One of the books that really intrigued me was one he wrote back in 1980 with Brian Clarke “The Trout and the Fly -a New Approach”. It was a major work and quite scientific as flyfishing books go. Showed what the trout sees. Lots of underwater pictures of flies and insects and some new patterns.
In the preface of his 2003/2004 book, he discusses the evolution of his own thinking about flies and fishing them.
He discusses that early in his fishing"career" he believed flies needed to be exact imitations to be consistently successful. He began tying in the mid-'50’s.
He points out that all his underwater work later led him to believe that size and silhouette were the most important.
Then, he says that since the early '80’s he became convinced of the probable importance of certain “key” points the fish might be looking for when feeding. This led him to say: “these, I now refer to as trigger points, and I try to incorporate them in my new patterns”.
herefishy- “fly fur” is a synthetic sold in any fly shops that also sell tying items for salt water. It comes in sheets and the fur is generally about 3-4" long. It resembles Arctic fox, but the “guard” hair section is longer. It looks like Goddard is using the guard hairs for his bubble and is stripping out the “underfur”- which I save for dubbing.
Ron
Almost everyone has tried to make LaFontaine’s emerger and pupa easier to tie. Personally I don’t think they are difficult, maybe a little time consumming.
