One last point may help as well. Your hackle wants to balance with your tail. When using a pattern that calls for GP tippet fibers, as said before, they can absorb water more quickly than some other materials. This coupled with too large a hackle will push the tail down. Just take a look at a well tied classic dry then compare it to a well tied Catskill-style tie. The standard will use a hackle that just clears the hook gap combined with a tail as long as the hook shank. A Catskill tie will use a larger hackle (from a hook gap and a half to 2 hook gaps long combined with a tail that is one and a half hook shanks long. Because of this the tails are usually either dry fly hackle fibers or, even better, Coq de Leon fibers.
It takes some time to learn how to balance the fly materials but I'm sure you'll get it. One thing to remember when it comes to tying materials - less is more! Save this effort and put it aside as a keepsake then, as you gain experience, you'll find that you could tie 2 or 3 flies with the material you used to tie this keepsake.
Luckily, ALL my ties have been excellent, even my very first ones, and I've been tying for over fifty years now. Or at least that's how I remember it!
Good luck and have fun with this fine hobby.
Kim
