KPH and JC - thanks, the Micropatterns book looks interesting. I will look into it.

Tyflier - great info, thank you. Interesting idea about using the straight-eye hooks, as I didnt think about it getting in the way of the hook gape and affecting the hook-rate.

F4T I know exactly what you mean about 16's looking huge. I've been tying up some size 20's and when i went to put them in my box in the row above my 16's I was shocked at how big they looked! Funny thing, last time I was showing my dad (a non-fisher) some of the flies I tied, mostly size 14 and 16, he remarked 'you catch fish on those small hooks?'.

Malevo, thanks for the recommendation. I think I'm going to go ahead and purchase the book.

After I've read through it, I will post my comments about it.