Viking:

Have a good day out on the water. I myself am planning to have a great day working.

Those 24's and 26's can be challenging even with the 3x's. The 3x's bring em up to look like 18's -20's.

Good luck.

Here is a trick,  my having weak eyes and arthritic hands, that has worked well for me for tying on any fly smaller than 14.  I do it at the bench using my magnifying lamp and  by attaching the fly to my vise. I run the tippet through the eye and tie it off. I spool off the desired length and tie-in the loop for connection to the leader. I then coil the tippet in 3 inch loops, ending up with the tie-in loop and the fly at opposite ends of the coil. I carefully insert the coil into a 4x4 inch Ziploc bag and the fly is ready to go.  On the stream, I can change patterns in 30 seconds or less;  otherwise, I might sruggle for five minutes or more trying to tie on an 18 or 20 ( no way with a 24 or 26!). You can buy the bags online (usually by the 1000's) or I reuse the ones that it seems every fly fishing accesory comes packaged in. Bushy flies can get a little flattened and the coils may need to be straightened if stored for a long time. Likewise, the packaging gets a little bulky, but I can get 25 or more into the small pockets on my vest.

Good luck, Viking.  Let us know how it goes.

so cappy we still on for the 530 fish call on putah tomorrow in the same place you mentioned. oh ya did emerger happen to pm you about joining us in the morning. hit me back and let me know