I came across this old video that highlights Gary LaFontaine and his most popular caddis patterns. It also has cameo appearances by Mike Lawson and Jack Dennis.
Gary shows how he tied his flies as well as the reasoning behind their design.
In it, he mentions the trade name of “Dazzleaire” as one of the trade names used for the sparkle material he used in his patterns. Also highlights the “touch dubbing” technique that he used.
I thought some who are not familiar with LaFontaine and his thinking/tying would get a lot out of this old video.
Thanks for the link, Byron. I have this video on VHS tape (!), and return to it from time to time. Gary was a pretty special guy. His research and theories don’t get much press these days, which is a shame.
If I remember correctly, he wrote his first work on caddisflies as his Master’s thesis in Psychology? I seem to recall that he convinced his Graduate Professor that the research he was doing related to the subject matter…
Someone correct me if I recall incorrectly. If right, pretty ingenious.
Found this excerpt in a Weber State University publication of an interview between Prof. Craig Obert and Gary LaFontaine fairly late in Gary’s life:
“How did you talk the psychology department into allowing you to use trout as a behavioral model?[FONT=caecilialtstd-heavy]It took a pretty good sales job, but I convinced them it was simply stimulus/response. The trout rising is a response, and the food on the surface is the stimulus.[/FONT] Did the material from your master’s thesis get incorporated into some of your books?
[FONT=caecilialtstd-heavy]It’s incorporated in all of them. It’s the theory of imitation and theory of attraction. It is the basis of all my new fly patterns. I learned to use the scientific method in that master’s thesis. I used it in everything I did, including double blind testing. Accept nothing on face value—prove it—and that drives people crazy.”[/FONT]
