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3. Entomology and Philosophy

Taxon, thank you for the reference to your Hatches article in the Entomology Books thread. I just took a look and found the article to be very well-organized and informative. It will help me direct my bug book buying for some time. I'm very busy fishing and tying these days and though not skunked yet, am recently working hard for fish in what I am tempted to think of as less than ideal conditions. Your wisdom of enjoying each day and not counting the fish caught as the most significant measure of success has helped me keep my focus broader, appreciating the wood ducks I've been lucky to get close to, and enjoying the challenge of finding a fly that works at all. I'm learning to see these kinds of things and the wonderful good fortune of health and time to fish are as parts of the equation that are as important and meaningful as the thrill of a heavy hatch and lots of active fish.

Louis,
To me flyfishing and entomology go hand-in-hand. I was fortunate enough to get introduced to entomology when my father took me flyfishing when I was ten yeras old.
My father made me tye my own flies, so that was part of it too. As a result, I didn't catch too many trout those first two years.
But our entire group (4), were all 'match the hatch' guys, so knowing the entomology of the stream and hatch dates were important.
We are very fortunate to have a website like this to share/learn. So much thanks to Jason and all the others who make this site work......... thanks guys!
If you want to get into caddis ..... I highly recommend 'Caddisflies' @ Gary LaFontaine.

John

John, good to hear your views. Caddisflies is one of the books I already own, but I do need to go back to it. I was watching an Ed Shenk video again today and realized how much I had forgotten from it. The old adage ars longa vita brevis should be altered to ars piscatoria longa vita brevis.

Louis,
If your into nymph fishing, you might be interested in a book/dvd by Rick Hafele.Rick has written articles for 'American Angler'
in the 'Entomology' section.
If you don't buy the book, I recommend the dvd, it is very informative on how to fish your nymphs. The dvd is also very funny. John and Rick are a good team. There is a sample of the video on the link. The quality of the sample video is not very good, but the real dvd quality is very good!
This is the link......
http://www.laughingrivers.com/nymphfishing.html

A buddy recently lent me his copy of this book, and I did find it interesting. In another thread I summarized some of Hafele's discussion about styles of nymphing back in February. You'll find my summary, under the title "Nymphing Methods," along with some interesting comments from other forum participants if you look back in the February threads in the general "Fly Fishing Discussion." I liked the goofy DVD, which reminded me of some of Gary LaFontaine's antics on some of his DVD's.