Up-eye, Straight or Down-eye hook?

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Greenwell
Posts: 346
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:05 pm

Re: Up-eye, Straight or Down-eye hook?

Post by Greenwell » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:26 pm

The first reference to eyed fly hooks appears in Hewett Wheatley's "The Rod and Line," 1849. Wheatley describes using hooks with a tiny eye at their extremity for dressing artificial beetles and other flies, which he pictures on the color plate opposite page 74. Wheatley doesn't say whether the eyes are up, down, or straight, but the flies in the plate appear to be on straight eye hooks, although it's hard to be certain.

In Aldam's "Quaint Treatise," 1876, there are two actual artificial mayflies dressed by Mary Ogden, the daughter of James Ogden, a noted fly dresser and author. The specimens in the book have detached bodies, they are on long shank, vertical up-eye hooks, and are said to be the earliest examples of purpose dressed dry flies. There is a story that these hooks were chosen for the book because they were too brittle to use for fishing and nearly ruined Ogden's reputation. Ogden had his daughter dress the specimen flies for the book on the faulty hooks, knowing that they would never be fished, rather than throw them out!

The up-eye hook is inextricably linked to the development of the dry fly. An up-eye kept the tying silk in place during the crucial steps of forming the head and tying the whip finish. Other then that, up-eyes offered no significant advantage over the down eye.

In my opinion, and I may ruffle a few feathers here, the down eye is far better than either the up-eye or straight-eye designs. The so called advantages of the up-eye are mostly illusory while the advantages of the down eye are easy to demonstrate in both theory and practice. For the best discussion of these advantages read the chapter on hooks in Datus Proper's book, "What the Trout Said." There has been no better discussion of hooks and how they work either before or after Proper. Besides, you should read his book anyway!

As to the idea that an up-eye hook will open the gape on a small hook just bear in mind that no less an authority on small hooks than Vincent Marinaro, when asked by Partridge to design the ultimate midge hook, chose a down eye design. I have caught hundreds of trout on the old K1A "Marinaro Midge Hook" in sizes 22-28 and have to agree with his choice. Both Marinaro and Proper advocated a 30 degree down eye as the optimum for hooking ability and sufficient gape. (As an aside, many other things can "mask" the point of the hook besides the eye. Dense hackle, thick bodies, etc can all decrease hooking ability.)

Briefly though, what the down eye offers is a more direct pull from the tippet to the hook point then either of the other designs. One can also use a knot such as the Harvey Knot, which goes through the hook eye and wraps around the shank. While this knot can be used on up-eye hooks, it can't be used on straight-eyes. (The Harvey Knot, while similar to the Turle Knot but much more secure, is perhaps the strongest of all tippet to hook knots and is the one I use when I may expect to encounter larger than average trout, such as fall run-up fish on the Madison or big Delaware browns eating Green Drakes.)

I do use a few straight eye hooks, such as the DaiRiki 1480, which, like many straight eye fly hooks, seem to be light in the wire, something I dislike even in dry fly hooks. All factors being taken into consideration, I dress the majority of my flies; Spiders, drys, nymphs, etc. on down-eyes. The hook by which I judge all others is the old made in England Partridge L3A, perhaps the best all round trout hook ever produced. Other favorites are the Partridge Code A, G3A, and L2A. I also like the TMC 3769, 9300, and the no longer made 5210. All of these models have good to great hooking ability, good to excellent strength, and a roughly 30 degree down-eye.

Personally I see no reason, other than nostalgia or a sense of history when reproducing old patterns, to use anything other than a down eye hook.
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Theroe
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Re: Up-eye, Straight or Down-eye hook?

Post by Theroe » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:14 pm

...... that’s the thing about hookss: one simple question can lead to pages & pages of comments !

Mike - thanks again for the farm and feathers, both were beautiful. But, your snowshoe hares feet are SECOND TO NONE. Absolutely prime-better than anything from any vendor or store.
Thanks again
Dana
Soft and wet - the only way....
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