Tying a Gary Lafontaine Caddis Pupa (Variant) by Davie McPhail 

I remember watching Gary's videos. You Davie, were my favorite RU-vid Tier, still are! But Gary's books were soul awakening. I remember I was so stressed about tying, because I was not doing great at the bench or at casting. One day I was shopping and on the book table of old books, I found Challenge of the trout, for $4 or $5. This book changed everything for me. It spoke of Why did I tie, what do I tie, with what do I tie. Then it tied everything into a story and I fell in love with fly fishing all over again. I was brought to realize that nobody was judging me, nobody was telling me I was failing. It describes rational thought through the process of finding a fish, what to use to catch the fish and the process between my body and my brain, to present this fly to a fish. It did not fix it immediately, but once I looked at this information, I could actually understand what I was doing. Slowly my fish catch and release was much better and off we went!!! So Gary taught this to me and a few years later he was gone. I bought his amazing book "CaddisFlies," if you are creating without it, sorry but you need it. I have his tying video in my Library and if he has other fly books out, then I look forward to finding them. I have always kept an eye open, I have been watching for any others available. If anyone is interested in getting hold of the Video he and his daughter are in, email me at pittkerry@yahoo.ca I'll lend it, as long as you know I will expect it back. It's a handy bit of stuff to watch and you know.....😁 Take care Out there!

I have been tying these Lafontaine emergers for years with modest success creating the gas bubble. Davie McPhail's method above is the first time I have been able to make the bubble perfectly everytime. As always his solutions to tricky patterns is always spot on. Thank you Davie!

This fly is my absolute favorite caddis imitation it’s the first bug I caught my first trout on and my first tied fly it means a lot to me I recently found a source that has Gary’s original materials I’ll be sure to apply these tweaks to this amazing pattern thank you for sharing

I am sure Mr Gary LaFontaine would be very proud and complimentary of your revised pattern of this popular caddis emerger if he was with us today. Thank you for sharing.

A great rewind on this shelter in place day, Davie I will bet you have been recorded nearly 1,000,000 times saying “ wax your thread”.

My home river is the Neversink in NY. I feel blessed to be able to be in proximity to such a historic and beautiful river. One of my favorite patterns to use is the la fontaine caddis; the fish never leave it alone! This particular variant is so detailed that I couldn't imagine a refusal. Like I said; looks so good, I'd eat it! Thanks Davie

Tied up a few of these and tried them on the Kinnickinnic here in western WI. Though the calendar says spring it's still winter (but I'm hoping!) so I don't know why I tried them, or why they worked, but this was one of the best best days I've had in a while - maybe the fish are tired of winter too!. Thank you Davie!

You never cease to amaze me in the way you make all this look so simple. I will have to tie up a few of these for the late spring here. Great job!

Sir mcphail stepping it up on the LaFontaine! Beautiful work as always

I really like this version of a great fly!!

Great video and awesome pattern! I think the bubble affect makes the trout go crazy. Also the leg addition was a good add. Tight lines

I loved how you formed the segmented underbody. Great technique. Thank you for teaching me something new. ;-)

Beautiful fly

Nice Davie. You really did put your own touch in this pattern. Thanks for all the inspiration. Regards Thomas

So nice flys mr Davie. Like everytime, so good 👌

I have read somewhere that it has been actually scientifically disproven by some biologists that a caddis pupa looks like this during its transformation, meaning with this big air bubble around its body, which is how Gary Lafontaine imagined it. And therefore I think that this pattern is rather a general attractor pattern, mainly attracting rather than imitating, which would explain why it is so damn effective nearly anywhere and under so many conditions, ya know when there is no caddis hatch whatsoever this fly will still catch like crazy

stunning update to already good pattern. awesome.

Thanks very much David happy Halloween

This is one of my favorite flies, sizes 18-14. I like to use partridge instead. But I don't ever nymph without trailing one of these off my rig. It should be a top 5 fly in any box, gi en the abundance of caddis in almost all watersheds

fabulous demo!

i just watched 4 videos on how to tie this fly., your was the easyest to tie..

Verry good fly davie I like the way you tied the body on the fly nice job

Great video. Caddis pupae are one of my favorites. I'll have to try this pattern.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Awesome variant

superbe Davie tankiou

Looks promising Fly pattern Very nice Thanks.!😎

Beautiful, great ideas in it

great interpretation davie. i used to tie one with white antron and amber body dubbing. brilliant on the tarvie lochs. the trailing shuck looked so good i incorporated into my sedgehogs.

That's bloody good mate

Отлично получилось.

Fantastic Davie keep them coming ( Wigan )

Удачное сочетание. Покажите еще другие, нимфы.

Nice! Thanks!

The Brits and the tanks are turkey separated by a common language !

When working your thread so close to the eye, how do you keep it from falling into the eye of hook?

Thats what i wanted to see for a long time! :) Great tie! Sir Lafontaine said to use extra amount of antron on the bubble, then cut a bit for the tail, this way it moves more natural, what do you think about that? What is that UV Micro Fritz's distributor name?? I'm your big fan Mr. Davie, as always perfection (those pheasant legs just stomped me! with inspiration :))

ナイスベリー

Another beautie daive will work on river and lake i have no doubt joe in lreland

Мушки у вас супер всего хорошего вашем деле

question, how many years have you been tieing flys?

Hi Davie, i'm a big fan of you! i've seen that you use a lot of the SLF dubbing in your caddis flies. Can you tell me wich SLF dubbing you use in this pattern? Thank you Davie! Keep up the good work! ;)

Hi Dave, I obsessed over this pattern the first time I saw Gary LaFontaine tie it, looking everywhere for "puff", and "dazzle air" or whatever the Antrim yarn is. What I would like to know is, have you fished it in the UK and have you had much success with it? Cheers

Recommendations on fishing this pattern, since it is much bulkier than a soft hackle wet with a slim body? Ron.

Hi davie did you ever fish this pattern. Classic thanks for your time and hard work

Hi Davie I'm sorry to say I need your help please where in the UK or any where can I get this yarn. All the best from lough mask

☺👍

Hi Davie What can I use if I can not find antron. Appreciate

Please fly Hegene and montage

How should the caddis pupa be fished ? like dry or subsurface or deep nymph ?

Is that the new Loon Ergo scissors Davie.....

Круто, обязательно свяжу

Dude! You were in America and you didn't tell me?!

5//5.. ;))

Hegene nimf

Ma chi ha tradotto questo video? Non si capisce nulla!!!! Pessima traduzione...disturba la visione ed è incomprensibile!!