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 SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING.   March 5, 2001
 19 out of 21 found this review helpful

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.


The finest angling entomology ever written.   July 1, 1997
 63 out of 63 found this review helpful

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.