title: The Dry Fly: New Angles
author: Gary Lafontaine
description: The author of <i><a href="/exec/obidos/ISBN=0941130983/${0}">Caddisflies</a></i> and <i><a href="/exec/obidos/ISBN=0962666319/${0}">Trout Flies: Proven Patterns</a></i> presents his vast knowledge about catching trout on dry flies in <i>The Dry Fly: New Angles</i>, an advanced resource for the serious fly-fisher. Combining years of fishing and tying experience with keen observation and lucid prose, LaFontaine organizes his information into several theories about trout behavioral patterns and fishing strategy. He starts with three basic schools of dry fly-fishing: empiricism, generalism, and naturalism. The empiricist relies on remembering which flies worked on certain rivers, regardless of the hatch; the generalist relies on presentation of a few favorite flies, also regardless of the hatch; and the naturalist tries above all to match the hatch with exact imitations. LaFontaine shows why each of these schools is flawed. Basing his ideas on close laboratory study and underwater diving, he argues that a knowledge of primary and secondary strike-triggering characteristics is paramount to catching fish--a school of thought that, in certain conditions, will exaggerate an imitative trait on a fly to attractor-like effect. Beneath all this is the science of when to use imitators and when to use attractors, when to float a fly high on the surface and when to float it low, like an emerger.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [![front](docimages/front.jpg)](http://ebooknews.simonandschuster.co.uk/front/9781471150630)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![images](docimages/title.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To Nigel, Susan and Stephen Judd
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #### Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  Frank Foucham winced at the flash of light. It was only the afternoon sun
  catching the stream where he had cast his fly but he couldn’t help it. Nor
  could he stop the trembling in his arms that followed. His hands were not
  obviously shaking but the tiny rapid quivering of his muscles was enough to
  vibrate the tip of his rod. He lowered it into the long grass and clasped his
  hands hard. The shakes came only now and again but if Phil, the squadron
  doctor, saw him spill his beer in the mess he might take him off flying.
  
  
  
  
  
  He kept his eyes on his fly, which was still on the water. It was an
  Infallible, a wet fly, which meant that it would gradually sink. He would have
  preferred a dry fly, or at least some grease to keep his line afloat, but