Nice article, mate.
Looks like we may have to start referring to you as a Renaissance man - writer, father, fisherman, artist & glassblower (with a terminal fear of hiccups, I hear). Pretty good going!
Up until this year I was just as you wrote - I had the bucktails in the bag, since you're supposed to, but never really had the confidence/succcess with them. This spring, though, a combination of a bucktail with cocohoe tail and a teaser fly worked great guns on the south coast (with the nice, tackle-forgiving sandy beaches......)