Started tying a new hopper pattern this evening. No surprise: the first one had me encountering some problems and didn't look like the pictures. But it looked good enough to fish and showed me the problems I'd need to solve on the second attempt.

The second one had fewer puzzles to solve, I thought, but ended up looking worse than the first.

Shrugging that off, I started my third and got about 75% through it before bringing out the razor blade to salvage the hook.

I could have kept going, but it seemed like I was going downhill. So I just put the tying gear away. I'll probably pull it out again tomorrow evening. Wishing myself better luck then.

Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you.

And I still enjoy this hobby.