Fix a Fly

You are fishing an Adams Parachute Dry Fly size 14 and catching a fair number of trout. However, about half of the trout that come up to look it over refuse it. You look in your fly box to get to a smaller Parachute Adams which is a ploy which usually fools those trout refusing the size 14. Unfortunately, you do not have a smaller Adams or any other smaller fly. I’ve often solved this problem by using my clippers to remove 3/4 of the tail hackle fibers on the size 14 pattern. It works because this creates a smaller light pattern of the fly which the trout see.