Steve, you don't say what brand you are using. As other posters have pointed out, Tiemco and Mustad make great hooks in their standard dry fly hook. I've caught smallies (14"+) on the Mustad R50 (1x) at #8... Are you tying your own, if so, what brand. If you are buying flies you may want to investigate what brand your fly supplier is using... Not all hooks are created equal and even some (as others have said) may not be appropriate to the application. I would hesitate to use a 2X on a small dry or pretty soon you'll be fishing a small wet...