As usual Neil has nailed it. We all know there is no one fly that is a panacea, but still tend to rely on favorite styles to our detriment. Some guys love the parachute, comparadun, I had a brief afair with the no-hackle, but no one thing does the trick ever. I just got back from a trip to the Delaware River in the Catskills, and fished some tough slow water there. Two friends and I fished hard for a couple of hours during what appeared to be a BWO hatch, fish rising everywhere, and were hitless. Finially I looked down in the water and saw a rusty spinner, put one on and caught a very nice brown. Then, after giving rusty spinners to one of my friends, nothing. I then saw a brown take a big mayfly, probably a brown drake, there were the odd ones on the water. I put one of those on, a Western Brown Drake Emerger by Rene Harrop. Caught another good fish with it. Gave out Brown Drake Emergers. Not another hit on one. Switched to a small no-hackle BWO, got another nice fish. The biggest fish of the day was caught by my friend Bruce, a gorgeous 19" brown, on an olive emerger. It was tough and somewhat crazy at the same time. If we had arrived with pre-conceived notions, we would have been dead meat. Great article Neil, as usual!