Taught myself a lesson the last couple of days, all those flys I’v seen coming off the water in the past that are white in color or pale, I just knew they was a size 14, I’v been tying up some 14 drys Adams etc. and decided to add Cayhills, pale morning duns , and kept trying to ty them on 14 size hooks, frustraiting, they looked so HUGE…lol finally after a few atemps I decided to scale down, tyed them up on a size 16 hook, guess what, they look like a size 14, I know white makes things look bigger, thats why alot of rooms in houses are painted white, I shoulda thought about that with nature too, good lesson for me…
Another thing with white, I’v been tying 14 klinkhamer’s with a white post cause that makes it easier to see them on the water, I have in the past, seldom fished, a 16 and nothing smaller cause I can’t see them, well I’ have been tying up some 16’s and can see that smaller sizes tyed in white or some easy to see colors is the same size as a wing post on a klinkhamer, 12 or 14. lol Ok this all may sound like common sense to everyone, but I didn’t think about it until seeing the 2 flys settimg beside each other. Heck I got some #22 hooks I found in my box and I may ( I MAY lol) give it a shot at tying some of them up in white…
White works well for me, until I hit a foam line then I sometimes have a big of a problem. Orange or pink posts on parachutes also work well.
Makes me want to get out there and cast some flies upon the water.
Next week for sure, on the Yakima River.
Larry 
—sagefisher—
I believe that all flying insects seem to look bigger than they really are regardless of color. I assume you didn’t actually capture the mayfly and estimated the size in flight.
A good rule of thumb is to go down in size if your fly doesn’t work. It works for masking hatches also. If that doesn’t work, the go back one stage in emergence, ie, if you were fishing the subimago (the dun), go back one stage and fish an emerger pattern.
Incidentally, the kinkhammer is an emerger, and I believe a parachute adams is most often taken as an emerger. But that is a subject for another time.