What's your favorite hook?

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Old Hat
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Old Hat » Thu May 04, 2017 6:59 am

Barry, I far prefer a weighty hook for flymphs. I don't tie my flymphs on lighter hooks. I save the lighter hooks for spiders and only the ones that I want right in the surface. The ascension is the key to fishing flymphs and you can't get that unless it descends first. There are a lot of good quality hooks out there today. Be purposeful in your selection to fit your want, fishing style and water. Good luck, can't wait to see some of your patterns on the hooks you choose.
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Bazzer69
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Bazzer69 » Tue May 23, 2017 11:31 pm

Found these hooks and they appear to be fabulous for soft hackle flies. Very sharp as all Gamakatsu hood are.
IMG_3674.jpg
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by letumgo » Wed May 24, 2017 6:08 am

Oh, those look great! I love the limerick bend, and nice gap.

Thanks for the tip.
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gingerdun
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by gingerdun » Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:29 am

Everyone,
I'd like to revive this useful string.
After digesting the comments, I prepared this diagram of the Tiemco hooks that were recommended—by far the most popular brand. I plan to do the same for the other hooks when time allows.
Out of curiosity, does anybody care to comment on Alec Jackson and Dai Riki hooks?
Also, the only Fulling Mill hooks recommended were the 35075 and 35050, mentioned by William Anderson. Are there any other comments on this brand?
Also, why the preference for Tiemco over Daiichi? Is their metal better, or something like that?

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tie2fish
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by tie2fish » Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:21 am

I have no idea why TMC hooks were/are preferred. They cost nearly half again as much as Daiichi where I buy my hooks and offer no practical advantages that I can discern.
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Smuggler
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Smuggler » Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:05 pm

Those Gama hooks look tasty.... may have to try some of those.

As far as preference goes for dressing flymphs, A 1x strong hook is a good choice IMO. Daiichi 1560 are fantastic choice for this. Plus, Daiichi's bronzing is second to none.
Bill, I think people prefer TMC over Daiichi simply because of the name, brand loyalty. Even though they're for the most part, made in the same factory. Same with Dai-riki, they're essentially Tiemco-U series hooks in different packaging.

Lance, to answer your question;
I love these hooks, for obvious reasons ;)

The F35000 (Heavy Weight Champ) is a good hook for when you're targeting bigger fish as it is a 3x strong hook. A lot of guys in the UK use this hook for lough-style wets.

F35050 (Ultimate Dry Fly) Is my bread and butter hook these days. I dress everything on this hook from skinny nymphs with undersized beads to flymphs. I've never had an issue with the standard gauge wire. The claw point is a good design for holding purposes.

F35075 (Short Shank Special) I like this hook for spiders, a lot. The 3x short shank gives you the perfect amount of room for silk bodies and lightly dubbed thoraxes a while allowing for a nice spare hackle. One of my favorites. Guys over here in the competition scene use this hook for over sized bead head nymphs and say it's outstanding. The elongated point on this hook is what stands out I think, it allows for fantastic holding power.. I can attest to this.

Please note these hooks are completely barbless.

The Alec Jackson hooks are very slick for spiders and the like, it's a nice hook. Smashing the barb on these almost always results in a fractured barb though, that's because of the crystal finish. Not sure if I've ever caught fish on these though, I thought they were too flashy and fish would pick up on them very quickly. The Alec Jackson series from Daiichi are very good hooks though, without a doubt.
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Johnno » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:32 pm

Down here Tiemco are very popular, but many - myself included - find their light wire hooks (eg TMC100) bend out too easily. So I tend, for Tiemco, to go for the heavier wire. OTT, Kamasan are popular here and those two brands run the local fly hook market With a few other cheap crappy alternatives. Grip and Hanek are starting to appear in places.
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fly_fischa
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by fly_fischa » Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:41 pm

Interesting post folks.
I haven't had any fishing experience with the fulling mill barbless comp hooks so won't comment. I've tied extensively on they're standard range of irons for years, good value for money jap hooks not quite in the league of TMC's but very respectable for a lot less $$$. I mainly used their medium wire standard and short shank special, as to whether they'd stand up to big fish I can't comment as I've only caught fish up to 5lbs on them, with no issues.

When targeting large trout I'm always on the quest for hooks that won't fail me, I hate losing big fish to my irons failing me.
Kamasan B175's and B170's are about as strong as they get but also about as uninspiring as they get imho.

I know one of the best commercial tiers in NZ and had this discussion with him once and we are both of the same opinion when it comes to dry fly emerger and unweighted nymph irons TMC9300 takes first place and Kamasan b170 2nd. Plenty of trophy 10lb+ fish have fallen to these two.

For small wet flies, nymphs and emergers the TMC 2488 is hard to go past, SPBL 2499 is also a personal fav as long as it suits the fly you're tying.

I recently became a Partridge Pro tier as I wanted to give their hooks a go, I love the range in terms of available hook lines both barbed, barbless and heritage/classic. They were the one company that seems to have the most complete hook range at least for my needs predominantly trout. A lot of the hooks in the range are a bit light for my needs so I've been using heavier hooks for both wets and dries. I haven't been able to field test them on big fish as yet so time will tell.

One hook range that constantly surprises me for still surviving in the current market place is Mustad. I do like the vintage irons for tying classic flies but Mustads hooks especially their modern range would imho be the most ordinary hook out there. Their hooks failed me so many times before I settled on my needs I absolutely hate them and anyone that fishes NZ for specimen trout can attest to this! There are budget line hooks that I'd have more faith in personally.

That's my 2c worth :D
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Premerger
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Premerger » Tue Jul 18, 2017 4:40 am

Bazzer69 wrote:What's your favorite hook for soft hackles, flymphs and why?
I've been using some older Hardy Hamilton hooks which are japanned black. They are good looking but the japan finish can be a little rough and the eyes are not always fully closed. Because most the waters I fish are barbless, I prefer to fish barbless but crushing the barb down is no big deal. So barbless hooks,would be preferred. I would like to see what others use. Remember I use my flies for fishing not showing so the strength of the hook is important to me as well.
So let's see what you like to use and why.

Barry
Barry, my present choices are a little all over the place compared with the more experienced and firm choices others have.
For spiders and spider types I like Kamasan B160 in #14 and #16.
For more standard soft hackle, wingless wets I like the Kamasan B170.
This fly swap, for flymphs I'm using the Kamasan B405 #14.

While I used the Kamasan B175 a lot in the 1990s and found it incredibly reliable on larger fish (just wanted to say those words, sorry!)
I now prefer the lighter wire B170 and the shape of the bend. I've found the B170 excellent for tying dries as well and like the slightly longer shank for some patterns. Just recently I've tied dries with the B405 and made tails longer to compensate for the shorter body length. Am hoping the fish like them too.
If you're keen to stick with barbless and like a longer shank length, the TMC900BL is a gorgeous hook. Well certainly for dries but also on wingless wets.

I'm hoping John Shaner will explain his feelings about nickel hooks, alluded to in his excellent post. Prompt, prompt!
How hard can it be?
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Smuggler
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Re: What's your favorite hook?

Post by Smuggler » Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:14 am

Good stuff K, Kamasans are very nice hooks without question. Arno Laubscher from Scientific Fly(Grip Hooks) is a designer for us and is revitalizing the Grip hook. He's got some fantastic saltwater stuff but, I never toyed around with his trout hooks. Maybe I'll pester him about that....

Mustad is actually retooling their entire fly hook range. No release date is set however. Kind of anxious to see what they bring to the market. They actually do our new streamer hook and it's quite nice.
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