Thanks guys. Josh, the hook is a reworked Mustad. It's a 4/0 size, forged. The hook was japanned by another speypager and gifted to me. I would not attempt this fly again on such a large iron.i like it. the long look is something that I am always a sucker for... not to discredit the work you did on this but THAT HOOK!! What is it?!? looks like something really old and forged! awesome! this is a fly that I feel like i am still years away from so good for you for doing such a good job!
Dude...you trying to provoke me? Great effort...I would not attempt this fly again on such a large iron.
Good eye and thanks for the suggestions. I couldn't find my small oval tinsel when I tied this. I actually unravelled gold lace to use for my tinsel. Through that unravelling process my tinsel got quite funky and gave me fits the whole way.Nice job (actually superb for never having tied one before) on this rather tough to tie fly.
A couple of things to watch out for next time:
1) There is a small gap in the oval tinsel tag, work to have no gaps.
2) The IC is not uniformly mounted dead top and dead bottom of the shank (i.e. they aren't all flat to the exact bottom and top, some are a bit off center).