Quite a while back when I was starting back into fly fishing I ran into an old guy ( old is 15 years older than whatever my current age is) who was fishing. I watched this fellow for a while cause he looked like he knew what he was doing. Turns out that he did know what was going on. 70 plus years old.Orvis certified guide ,fishing intructor, the whole nine yards . He brought me up to speed pretty quick. One anomaly (Anomaly = Odd thing) . He only used Renegades in the #8 size !!! I mean ONLY Renegades and only #8s. Turns out that he couldnt see too well from former eye cancer. He had to use a fly that he could see well. He also was a "Master " of presenting that fly like a snow flake settling on the water. He would consistently take fish when others were not. With a Renegade #8 .
For me , that size is like slinging a bowling ball with a 2 wt .