Gary M wrote:

George Cleveland wrote:

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg


The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
(tomorrow). A truly simple tie.

Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.

Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch

Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare



George that looks like very productive pattern, but I am wondering why
you relate it to BWO family? It certainly could not be due to the blue
wings .


BWO's (at least out West) aren't a "family" in the scientific sense.
There are many different insects that are referred to as Blue Winged
Olives. They vary in size (usually small), color and other
characteristics. Many BWO's aren't blue or olive. To my eyes, most are
varied shades of gray.

In my part of Colorado, they range from a size 18 down to about a 26. I
have lots of effective patterns for the insects that are 18 and 20 but
when the natural insect gets below a 20, the effectiveness of the many
patterns I've tried goes way down. When the 18's are hatching, I can
fish the same fly and go from one rising fish to the next, sometimes
getting takes from each fish I present to. As the size of the natural
drops, patterns seem to become less effective (or the difficulty in
presenting them well goes up).

There's a very tiny one hatching right now on my home river. I can
generally get a fish out of each pod of feeding fish. It doesn't seem to
matter what pattern I'm using, I can even use a fly that's a couple sizes
too big. After the first fish is taken, it seems that the fish become
alerted. Although they continue to readily feed on naturals, I can see
frequents turns of fish to look at my fly that end in refusals when they
get about 6 inches to a foot away. After a single fish refuses a given fly,
they usually just ignore it in the future, not even turning to look at it
when it passes. A fly change will provoke renewed interest and with
about one out of four fly changes, resulting in a take. Then back to
ignoring.

Part of the problem, I know, is presentation. The fish are fairly hefty
and I don't like going below 6X. 7 or 8X would make for a better
presentation and result in more takes. However my experience is that
when trout are rising to tiny Mayflies or midges, of all the patterns
I've used, none are as effective as the patterns we use to represent
larger insects. Although a given pattern will take an occasional fish,
it's unusual to find a pattern that most of the feeding fish will take.
I think that when our patterns go below a size twenty, the materials we
use are
too "gross" for a good representation. Our saving grace when fishing the
small stuff, is that the trout have to eat ALOT of the insects to get a
meal and with some many feedings, the chances that they'll make a
mistake goes up.

Willi