Riverdep,

Forgive my interruption to your post but I'd like to stress two huge points that gave me grief when I first began tying 15 yrs ago. A bit unrelated to your question...

Strive to keep your flies SPARSE. The real ones are incredibly small and it's so , so easy to overbuild.

Stop building the fly a good bit before you think you should to keep that eye clear.

And finally...Strive to keep your flies SPARSE. (again)

Just wanted to share some of the more typical and frustrating points you WILL run into.

I hope this helps you along in this wonderful sport. You have some excellent replies here from some talented people.