"rw" wrote in message
m...
pittendrigh wrote:
...got a few new photos, from Saturday, of the tail end
of the Pmd hatch on the spring creeks near Livingston, MT.
One of the things I noticed was how remarkably yellow these
little mayflies look at a distance, and how much greener
and grayer they look close up.

http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/.../RealBugs.html

Awhile ago the question of color of flies came up in ROFF. Some people
(including me) thought that fish would likely see colors very differently
from people. Others (rdean, for example) thought that there would be a
one-to-one relationship between the colors fish see and the colors fish
see, so it wouldn't matter.


I am not sure color really makes much difference, a least for dry flies, as
the fly is backlit anyway, and presumably, all the fish sees is a shadow. I
have used a black wing, grey wing, and white wing BWO within minutes of each
other and been successful with each. The choice of fly related to the water
and sun condition more than my perception of which wing color would fool the
wiley trout. Of course, just to be safe, I meticulously match body and tail
color to the killer samples of the flies I pick up at local shops, and from
local guides. ;^)

FWIW, I recently read that Tappley (of Taps Tips fame) conducted an
experiment with some of his friends one season, wherein each participant
fished "Tap's NearNuff" exclusively, changing only size, and at the end of
the season reported the results. The consensus was that using that one
pattern all season did not affect their success rate. I suspect that fishing
an Adams would have similar results, especially since, as AK Best recently
wrote (in Fly Rod and Reel, I believe), there are at least 4,000 variations
possible!

Jim Ray