Haven't really thought about it but it has been a loooong time since I have tied up small stuff. For the past 10 years (give or take), it has been steelhead jigs & coho flies for AK....I just set out my trout stuff for the first time in AGES!!!! Is it just me...or does it seem your fingers get fatter and those size 16 hooks keep getting smaller and smaller

Even so, it sure is rewarding to tie up the perfect imitation!

Winter before last I found myself needing to tie up a bunch of more traditional stuff for a New Zealand trip. Like you, I had been in the salmon, steelhead, and AK trout mindset for a while. It was a lot harder than I would have imagined transitioning to small, detail oriented tying. I made everything too big at first, and even then it looked small. I started to get it after a while though.

My eyes and fingers hurt and my patience was thin, but I would like to think it paid off in the end?

Actually, I think I wound up catching more fish on the dolly lama there than all of my various bead head nymph creations combined. Hmmm...

My fingers haven't gotten any fatter, and the hooks really aren't any smaller. But they sure look fuzzy and out of focus until I slip on the 3 x magnifiers. And I can only wear those and tie for a fairly short time - a dozen flies max - before I get a headache from wearing them. I've been using 2 x reading glasses for years now with no issues, the "new normal", but they aren't enough for tying unfortunately. I've been taking the easy way out tho, for some years and just buying the small stuff, from size 14 or 16 on down.

Sg

My eyes are still pretty decent, and I still find those sweat shops in Malaysia turn out better small stuff than I do, so I buy that stuff, too. The $2/fly is a much better deal than giving up 15-20 minutes of tying time and enduring the frustration that comes with it for me.

That said, good on you for dusting off the vise, Moravec.