hook question

[letumgo]

REE has summarized my choices perfectly...

[Theroe]

I like ALL hooks

[letumgo]

It’s true. I’ve seen his collection. Dana is unlikely to ever run outta hooks.

[bearbutt]

I’ve seen his collection. Dana is unlikely to ever run outta hooks.

That's not true. I've done the math. He'll run out sometime between the years 2346 and 2348--.

bb

[letumgo]

[Fishnkilts]

So basically it's just personal choice then. That works for me I suppose. I do like the looks of them because I believe they give the fly a certain look.

I knew salmon fishermen like these hooks, and I never have met anyone fishing who had flies tied to these hooks. Then again, even though Colorado has land locked salmon, our state isn't known for salmon fishing.

All great replies friends, and I am thanking you.

[FlyFisherMann1955]

For those using up eye and ring eye hooks, what are your go-to Brands and Models?

Thanks- Ken

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Ken, for up eye hooks I prefer Mustad 94842. They may have a new number designation for it now. I have seen others that looked similar, but I have a pretty good supply of the Mustads so I haven't been looking.

For straight eye, I tie most of my spiders on Daiichi 1640. It's a light wire, 1 extra short hook, similar to a Drennon Specimen hook. I also use a Daiichi 1480, but have been told that the Daiichi isn't a real strong hook. It looks good, but a large fish may straighten it out. I can't say this for sure, as I haven't caught a fish on one yet.

[FlyFisherMann1955]

Ron,

I recently bought some of the Daiichi 1480 in size 14 and 18. I like the look of the Limerick bend. I probably need to go up 1 hook size since they're 2X short. I have tied a few flies on them, but haven't fished them yet. I would love to give a big fish the chance to straighten one!

The "up eye" Mustad (94842/R50U) are much harder to find. Everyone has the down eye (94840). I found a fly shop in BC Canada that carries them; unfortunately, they will not ship to the USA (something about tax licenses).
The search continues.................

Thanks- Ken

[Trevis]

So, it's been 44 or 45 years since I went through all the fly fishing and tying books that the big city library could obtain for me and in reading, note taking and copying pictures with pencil and paper they all kinda ran together, read the flymph book twice, and went at the study of all fly related literature like I was working on a degree for several months and somewhere in some of that literature there was a hint that surface flies had turned down eyes so that the tippet lying on the surface or slightly sinking would angle up to fly sitting above the surface on it's hackle and not push or pull fly out of level and that subsurface flies had turned up eyes so that with the tippet rising away at an angle the fly could again be level. Straight eyes were bait hooks where orientation didn't matter. It kinda made sense at the time.
I used the hooks available in that town and all fly hooks were down eye either 94840 or 3906B or whatever (9575?) the 6XL TDE streamer (shouldn't they have been TUE?) hooks were and each was only stocked in the 5-6 most popular sizes; so all my flies got TDE until a new "Pro" shop started up in the next town over and I tried other styles. The only place I really liked TUE is on #20-24 because it gives a wider gape or throat area.
Over the years I decided a straight eye should work for everything and any new hooks I buy will be straight eye, but I got into a wholesale deal once and bought couple thousand hooks in hundred packs and I still have a good many of them.
I'll never use those 6XL hooks that seemed so good an idea back then because now I like my streamers on short hooks. My favorite hook stye would be Mustad 3366 if they made them in small sizes. I use them a lot for bass and panfish.
Tying on those hooks that are 2XS are like tying on a wide gape hook, the way I like to use them is a #18 size fly on the #16 2XS, but that isn't really going up a hook size it is just using the shank length available. In a different brand or style hook the size will be way bigger or smaller for the same number anyway, there is no size standard. Don't hung up on numbers. I've seen #22s that could have been #16s for all the materials the guy used.