Started tying up some zug bugs last night for the first time. Very easy pattern. A few questions regarding this:

Initially started out with two-sided gold/silver flat tinsel as ribbing. Found this to be a pain in the ass to work with so I switched to french oval silver. Big difference. Anyone use anything else?

I used swords for tails and then plain herl (3-4 strands) for the body. Found the strands difficult to twist by hand. Looked in the FTBSR this morning and learned an easier way to twist the strands by using hackle pliers spun clockwise. Anyone use a different method?

After body was made and tinsel wrapped over, I had a somewhat difficult time making a sturdy tie-in for the wing. This was probably because I made them all bead heads. I tied the wood duck feather in at the point where the stem was the thinnest near the tip (since larger stem sections seemed to roll off my hook easier). I must have wrapped the tie-in point 30 times in order to secure it but it still seemed weak when I finished the fly off.

Regarding the swords, I used three at a time and was able to tie about 4 flies with those three strands. Pretty efficient. In contrast, I have to use four herl strands for each body that I made. After wrapping and trimming, there was not enough left over for another fly. I had to use another four strands.

Regarding the wingcase, my wood duck feathers were dyed some yellow-ish color, not the same as the cream color that my store bought flies have. Will that matter much? I assume no. I used a mallard feather at first but realized that I needed to use one entire feather per pattern which I realized was too expensive. Unless I'm not utilizing the feather correctly?