With a tail I would stop a little shorter on the straight, but without tail on this style hook I like just a hint of a curve. You can go back and view some earlier ones, see the patternMataura mayfly wrote:Body does seem a little long, at first glance, but look again and the tapered section with the slight downward cast of the bend seem to look right.

The marked quills are found in the eye portion of the feather. The herl lower down will have just dark quill.Never having dyed stripped herl, nor had any really good verigated stuff in the first place........ does the dye only take to the lighter coloured section of the quill, or is the dark section also now red?
The lighter edge of the quill takes dye quite well.
Cheers,
Hans W