Hook poll

[Guest]

I use whatever is readily available, I'm not married to any one brand for fishing flies. When I tie classic flies, I use Partridge, Ronn Lucas, Sr., Mustad or whatever comes closest to the look of the original fly.

[J. R. Caddick 0]

All of my flies are either tied on Mustad or Partridge hooks with a few Gamakatsu Hooks for some of my classic salmon flies.

 

day5, in Dick Stewart's "The Hook Book" it lists the bend resistance in oz. for the various hooks listed. I forget now how exactly they set up the equipment to do this but i know they used a scale, a bed from a lathe and some aluminum bar stock. It was probably a pretty decent way to evaluate hooks at the time.

[flyfishingtaz 0]

mustad, eagle claw, and white river( bass pro brand). Bass pro shops is only a mile from my home. so I do alot of my supply shopping there.

[Royal Coachman 0]

Mustad

[Guest]

Mustad, for the cost and that I've never had a problem with them.

 

Tried some Tiemco's cause they were given to me but didn't like them, have tried Dai-Riki only cause I won an auction on ebay.

 

But truthfully I've been seeing more and more Eagle Claw fly tying hooks on ebay, might give them a try.

 

Fatman

[Alex_F 0]

Partridge because of their quality and the fact that they're the only ones who make anything like the YMM2A which is the closest you'll get to the discontinued CS7, the perfect hook profile for wets IMO.

[atroutbum2 0]

Tying on a mustad hook is like tying a fly on a cooked piece of pasta, they have no backbone. The weight of the bobbin causes that piece of crap to bend. Ive had numerous instances where i tied the fly only to have it break when i took it out of the vice. And lets net even mention the many times i got a hook out of the box and the eye was deformed.

 

Oh yea, dont even try to crush the barb,your just asking for a broken off hook point.

You gotta love that Mustad qualiy.

 

Thats why i tie on daiichi hooks.

[day5 0]

I've heard that if you try to bend a bent mustad back to its original shape it will break more often than Tiemco will

 

 

Not true I have re bent mustads and still landed steel on them. Tiemcos are way harder and will break much easier

[J. R. Caddick 0]

Tying on a mustad hook is like tying a fly on a cooked piece of pasta, they have no backbone. The weight of the bobbin causes that piece of crap to bend. Ive had numerous instances where i tied the fly only to have it break when i took it out of the vice. And lets net even mention the many times i got a hook out of the box and the eye was deformed.

 

Oh yea, dont even try to crush the barb,your just asking for a broken off hook point.

You gotta love that Mustad qualiy.

 

Thats why i tie on daiichi hooks.

 

I am not sure how people manage to come up with these types of criticisms of Mustad or any other of the major hook makers. I have tied over 100,000 flies so far in my commercial tying career and i have never had the types of problems you describe. Now if you are spinning deer hair on a size 2 4XL hook and you don't expect it to bend then i think your expectations in a hook will never be found. You would need a wire diameter of 1/4" to take that kind of pressure and not bend.

 

If you break a hook taking it out of the vise then chances are you have probably placed the hook improperly in the vise and then put way too much tension on it either through the pressure of the vise itself or by overtorquing your thread.

 

If you break off the points of the hooks while de-barbing them then i suggest you are not de-barbing them correctly and it has nothing to do with the quality of the hook.

 

 

Here in Eastern Canada people use a lot of Mustad hooks for atlantic salmon fishing that most people only associate with trout fishing, if there was ever a fish that could destroy a typical trout hook then it would be a salmon and i have never had folks complain or ask about issues about these types of hooks.

[Royal Coachman 0]

I'm with J.R. Although I have not tied over 100,000 flies, I have been tying flies since 1982 and have never had a problem with Mustad hooks. Never broke one while de-barbing; never had one break while taking it out of the vice. Sorry guys....I like em! I use em! I catch fish on em!

 

RC

[atroutbum2 0]

Tying on a mustad hook is like tying a fly on a cooked piece of pasta, they have no backbone. The weight of the bobbin causes that piece of crap to bend. Ive had numerous instances where i tied the fly only to have it break when i took it out of the vice. And lets net even mention the many times i got a hook out of the box and the eye was deformed.

 

Oh yea, dont even try to crush the barb,your just asking for a broken off hook point.

You gotta love that Mustad qualiy.

 

Thats why i tie on daiichi hooks.

 

I am not sure how people manage to come up with these types of criticisms of Mustad or any other of the major hook makers. I have tied over 100,000 flies so far in my commercial tying career and i have never had the types of problems you describe. Now if you are spinning deer hair on a size 2 4XL hook and you don't expect it to bend then i think your expectations in a hook will never be found. You would need a wire diameter of 1/4" to take that kind of pressure and not bend.

 

If you break a hook taking it out of the vise then chances are you have probably placed the hook improperly in the vise and then put way too much tension on it either through the pressure of the vise itself or by overtorquing your thread.

 

If you break off the points of the hooks while de-barbing them then i suggest you are not de-barbing them correctly and it has nothing to do with the quality of the hook.

 

 

Here in Eastern Canada people use a lot of Mustad hooks for atlantic salmon fishing that most people only associate with trout fishing, if there was ever a fish that could destroy a typical trout hook then it would be a salmon and i have never had folks complain or ask about issues about these types of hooks.

 

Ive reached my opinion on mustad hooks by using them. Ive been tying for over 25 yrs so i think i am entitled to this opinion.

 

I tie on a regal vice so the amount of tension is always the same. If im putting the hook in the vice wrong, why dont i have this problem with the other types of hooks i use?

 

If im not debarbing the hooks correctly, again, why dosnt this happen on flies i tied using other brands of hooks?

 

I will admit that i have got deformed eyes from other hook manufactuers, but the mustad screwup ratio is greater by far.

 

If im bending the hook, why does the hook bend like a pretzel before the 8/0 thread breaks, and why dont i have this problem on the other brands of hooks i use?

 

I think the answer to all these questions is MUSTAD QUALITY .

 

Note : These comments apply mainly to the basic mustad hooks. The mustad signature series is a better quality hook but i still prefer to tie on daiichi hooks.

[Inconnu 0]

I've been tying for around 35 years and have NEVER had a problem with Mustad hooks. I have found fewer than ten deformed eyes in all of that time and never lost a fish on a broken point, nor have I ever broken a hook point off when debarbing it. I cannot think of any reason to pay more for other brands other than occasionally I buy something different to try out. Here is an approximate breakdown of what I preasantly use.

 

80% Mustad

 

10% Tiemco

 

10% Partridge

 

I have never had a hook break when I have been playing a fish and though I don't know why you would, repeated bending of most hooks will result in breakage.

[Alex C. 0]

I'm totally with atroutbum2 here on the Mustads. Although I haven't been tying for very long, I tie daily and I tie a lot. I started out tying on Mustad hooks cause they were the least expensive. Then my local fly shop started carrying the Mustad Signature hooks and a small display of Daiichi hooks. I got a few packs of each and didn't really expect to see much difference in them from what I was using despite the price difference. The signature series hooks were alright, as a matter of fact I still tie a lot of my spun deer hair flies on the Signature Series Stinger Hooks, and I am still using the Signature series hooks for my Trico imitations. The main reason I'm still using these is I have alot of each of them still. I'm sure when I start to run out I'll go to something else. I was really suprised at how much more it hurt when I pricked my finger on the hook barb when tying on Daiichi hooks. I don't care what anyone says, they are sharper. I am also pretty positive they are stronger too, but don't have any sound science to back that up, yet. Something else about the Daiichi hooks I have noticed is that I don't have any rusty flies in my fly boxes anymore. This could be cause I was more careful this year about not putting wet flies back in my boxes, but I was pretty careful the year prior and had a lot more rusty flies last year when I used Mustad. Another thing that helped convert me from Mustad to Daiichi in the end though was the price for Daiichi 100 packs of hooks. You can buy most models of them in a 100 pack for about $11-$12, and thats not even wholesale pricing. Yeah, Mustad 100 packs are cheaper, but I am more than happy to spend a couple more dollars on 100 hooks that I know are superior. Now I've still got Mustad hooks that I use for my own flies, mostly styles that other manufacturers don't carry, but just like with the signature series hooks I have, as soon as they run low I'll go to another company's hooks.

 

I could be way off base here, but in my opinion Mustad needs to address tyers' concerns. This isn't just a handful of people who talk trash about their hooks anymore, it's a lot now. The only thing keeping that company alive is the fact that the have so many more styles of hooks, the fact that people are just used to using them, and their cheap price. It isn't their quality They are no better than Eagle Claw(sorry all you Eagle Claw fans)

 

The other manufacturers such as Daiichi, Dai Riki, Gamakatsu, etc. are far superior in quality, it's only a matter of time before they make as many or more different styles and their prices come down.

[Alex C. 0]

I'm wondering if there is a test published that test durability and strength of different hooks? Alex will your gizmo at work do that ???

 

Yeah I can do that. What would you want to test for?

 

BTW- your 8# Ande mono is more like 12#, and stretches like crazy

[Slacker 0]

Interesting thread!

 

I have not been tying all that long but all I have ever used is Mustad. This thread has made me wonder about some other brands and I will experiment.

 

But ... for the record: I buy Mustad because they are readily available and I have not experienced any problems with them.

 

Slacker