A meaningless observation and a question

ROFFians,

I was out at my favorite local river over the weekend, and things
were very slow (*very* slow). At one point, I saw a few smallish fish
sporadically rising, but could see no signs of any bugs on the water or
any minnow activity.

Just for fun I dug out a large (#10) parachute Adams that I had tied
up more-or-less as a joke after having such good luck with #16 para
Adams on my trip to Canuckistan.

On the second drift I got a hit from a small sunfish, and I
continued getting action on almost every cast (well, on every good
drift, anyway) for the next 15-20 minutes. The fly took sunfish and
small Guadalupe bass.

I still can't figure out what they took the Adams for. The only
bugs in the air were some dragon and damselflies, but they were off in
color and size, and the fish weren't rising to them that I could see. I
don't know if the Adams might resemble an emerger or if it just looked
like some sort of generic food to them. Whatever it was, it saved me
from a fishless day on the water.

So has anyone else had luck with the Adams on both warm and
coldwater species?


Chuck Vance (who is wondering if a #2/0 Adams would work for
sal****er fish ;-)