Better have lots of time and gas money. Unless you live nearby with near daily access and local intel you might as well mail me your gas money. Been there, done that. There’s no patterning those fish.
My experience is, the more tore up a fly gets the better it works sometimes. I believe it was Leonard Wright who wrote about old time European fly fishers who loaned out newly tied flies to be fished by someone else and then brought back to them to use.