Bobby, all of this is great advise and most of us are constantly playing around with wings, tails and hackle to get the darn things to float properly.

I am not a stickler for brand names and product #'s of hooks, but I do use mustad most of the time and I know they have at least two differant hook diameters of dry flies.

I use both, but find the same fly on the heavier diameter hook land upright more often than the finer wire hook. This is because the hook tip portion back and up to the hook bend (near the tail) is what gravity pulls into the water to cause an upright fly.

Anyway as a rule of thumb I use the fine wire hook more for parachute and emerger patterns and the heavier wire hook for the heavier hackled flies. Even then I end up clipping the hackle on many of them, there are however a few that land upright most of the time with full hackle in tact. -Yaf