last:

Even though the real bug/emerger will often times have a brownish body; my olive emergers are for the most part olive.

Funny thing is; I tie 98% of my BWO dries with a grey body and olive hackle since most of the "olives" I encounter are more grey than olive with olive legs.

All of the emergers I have the best luck with are tied with a dark brown or brown Z-Lon or Antron trailing shuck. I REALLY like using grey CDC for a wing. A little brush with Frog's Fanny and they float pretty darn good. I am also kind of partial to tying them on a curved shank hook.

One more thing; if you don?t own a copy of Hatches or Hatches II by Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi; get one! It should be readily available in the used book market if there isn?t a current edition.

Beside my own observations; this book is my bible for mayfly behavior, coloration, size and hatching information. While some of the Latin names are confusing and may have been changed; the info in this book is excellent and very useful for Pennsylvania.

If I don?t have any first hand experience with a particular bug; I just go to Hatches and get the color & size of the natural and just tie up a general pattern in the right color & size.

As a result my fly boxes have a limited number of patterns in a whole lot of different basic colors. It works great for me and makes life a LOT simpler.