John,

Again, thanks for reading my article and then following it up with your own experiments. Great images and good reporting.

Some writers have suggested that trout in freestone streams might be less "picky" when it comes to color and that trout in spring creeks are harder to fool. Well, I have been fishing spring creeks extensively since 1971 and during that time I have caught some very picky spring creek trout on some pretty outlandish patterns, especially dry flies. I don't go out of my way to fish flies with wild colors, but my point is simply that color, especially on dry flies, is not one of the most important considerations. Size, shape, and behavior of the fly is more important than color. Even when the fly is wet, if it acts funny, or is at the wrong level in the water column, even if the color is spot on, your chances of success are reduced. Fish, whether trout or otherwise, eat things that act look and act like food. Your patterns that you used looked like food and I would place a bet that when you fished them you presented them so they looked like food. However, if any of my readers believes that color is very important for dry flies - may your tribe increase. It contributes to the plethora of fly patterns that are posted on FAOL.

Neil