dean_mt
Well-known member
I've been a big fan of Gary LaFontaine's work for quite a while. I can't remember which book I read first or how exactly I stumbled upon it. I think it was Caddisflies and I found it in the Missoula Public Library the first year I lived here. I was a greenhorn fly fisherman, new to the West and the Big Waters, and hungry - starving - for knowledge. For anything to teach me all that I was missing. I was a self taught trout fisherman from the start, learned on a couple little put and take streams of middle Michigan. So books had always been my guide and experience my teacher.
I read The Dry Fly not long after. I can actually remember the apartment I lived in while reading that book for the first time, it was utterly amazing to me that someone could know so much about fishing and be such a good writer, the romanticism was heighten by the fact that Gary had lived and fished the waters I so dearly wanted to learn about. That book taught me a lot and changed the way I approached angling for trout with flies.
Now, 12 or so year later, a couple weeks ago I grabbed the same old hardcover copy from the same shelf. My life so different now, my 3 year old daughter had already picked out her books and was trying to be patient while dad looked for something. I always head to the 799 section and just scan...as her patience ran out, I thought - "what the hell, I might as well read it again" and home I went with The Dry Fly again.
I remember how interesting and intimidating the book was a dozen years ago. Some of it is still intimidating, just in scope now, but it is mostly enlightening. I appreciate his approach and style so much more now. The life long dedication to his quarry. Gary was a true innovator, a scientist and a dreamer. It's a damn shame he left so young. I wish I could have met him. There are plenty of people still around that fished with him that I consider seeking out.
Since this is getting longer than I initially intended and I haven't yet begun to get into the book, I think I'll change my tack. I've made it clear that this book is important to me, and I wonder if anyone else has read it and feels similarly.
And finally, please share the books and writers that have changed and/or shaped your life as a fly angler.
I read The Dry Fly not long after. I can actually remember the apartment I lived in while reading that book for the first time, it was utterly amazing to me that someone could know so much about fishing and be such a good writer, the romanticism was heighten by the fact that Gary had lived and fished the waters I so dearly wanted to learn about. That book taught me a lot and changed the way I approached angling for trout with flies.
Now, 12 or so year later, a couple weeks ago I grabbed the same old hardcover copy from the same shelf. My life so different now, my 3 year old daughter had already picked out her books and was trying to be patient while dad looked for something. I always head to the 799 section and just scan...as her patience ran out, I thought - "what the hell, I might as well read it again" and home I went with The Dry Fly again.
I remember how interesting and intimidating the book was a dozen years ago. Some of it is still intimidating, just in scope now, but it is mostly enlightening. I appreciate his approach and style so much more now. The life long dedication to his quarry. Gary was a true innovator, a scientist and a dreamer. It's a damn shame he left so young. I wish I could have met him. There are plenty of people still around that fished with him that I consider seeking out.
Since this is getting longer than I initially intended and I haven't yet begun to get into the book, I think I'll change my tack. I've made it clear that this book is important to me, and I wonder if anyone else has read it and feels similarly.
And finally, please share the books and writers that have changed and/or shaped your life as a fly angler.
