I often wonder where they come up with these studies. I find the rivers more crowded than ever. Fly shops still run out of Red Quills in April and early May and out of March Browns in May.
Like so many new fly pattern you see written up just to put an article in a magazine and have never been fished...I think a study like this is mostly made up just to create an article that sounds interesting. Like any study or poll, the person taking it can make it come out the way they want just by the way questions are asked, or the type of question asked, or where they ask it. I fish only during the week for some years now. The weekend trips to streams and rivers I do now are pretty much social with little actual fishing.