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troutslayerny

Favorite Hooks?

What brand of hook do you swear by?  

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Since moving away from a readily available fly shop, I am faced with many decisions in buying hooks. I have always used Dai Riki and Tiemco. Now I find those rather expensive and am looking for an affordable and reliable brand. One shop sold Eagle Claw fly tying hooks. I bought some and found they rusted halfway through the season. The mustads I bought were missing eyes or snapped in my jaws.

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I use a quality hook. Daiichi, tiemco,mustad signature. Whatever good hook is available at the shop im at, that fits my need at the time.

 

Nothing is more frustrating than to have that low quality P.O.S. hook break when you crush the barb or take it out of the vice.(The original mustad series did this very often)

 

I dont like hooks that have no backbone,put the slightest pressure on the thread and they bend like a piece of cooked pasta.

 

You might think your saving money by puschasing the low quality hook but after you figure in breakage, deformed eyes ,ect ... are you really saveng any money?

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I've always used mustad and partridge for my tying, they were the best you could get for years. Now I use whatever I need for a particular pattern. I still use mustad for the majority though.. as for rust unlees they are s.s. hooks will rust.

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I use a lot of Eagle Claw hooks...

 

They are pieces of crap in my opinion but for the fishing I do the average fly doesn't last very long - and its EXTREMELY rare that I use a fly on more than one trip. Clousers get lost or broken on rocks, bluefish destroy a lot of flies too, its just a part of life if you are fishing for stripers and not snagging rocks you are likely fishing in the wrong places.

 

So for a fly that is going to be fished around rocks or for bluefish I like the El Cheapo hooks - I once determined the average clouser lasted 4 casts.

 

Now for a flats fly, or something that I'm going to target Bonito or FA with I use Varias - but as a percentage of all my flies thats pretty minor.

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I like Gamakatsu hooks for bigger flies and Bass Pro Shop generic hooks for everything else. The generics are good hooks, don't rust as long as you take care of them, and yet have bent them, plus they're light on the budget. Gamakatsu hooks are really sharp and dependable, if they had sizes that would be more specific to my tying needs I would probably solely tie with those.

 

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I have been buying Eagle River and Talon hooks for the past couple years. They are distributed by Superfly in canada, and I was told they are a good deal. The Eagle river is less expensive than standard mustad hooks, but are a bit better quality - Chemical sharpened etc. They carry some nice hooks. The Talon are their higher end hooks, and are basically Gamakatsu from what I can see.

 

Great quality, and value. biggrin.gif

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I've been using Mustad hooks as long as I've been fly fishing. Near as I can tell, I've never lost a fish because of a bad hook. I've dulled them, broken them on rocks and straightened them through excessive pressure. All my fault.

 

Old Mustads were dull and needed to be sharpened - but then that was true of almost all hooks more than 10 years ago. Today's chemically sharpened hooks are a big improvement.

 

Now I still like Mustad. I like Mustad Signature, but they can be spendy. Overall I'm glad to pay it if the hook is right for the job. I LOVE Gamakatsu hooks - great irons in a multitude of designs. The Gama Mosquito hook is one design that needs a lot more exposure in the fly fishing community. I've also used Tiemco, Targus (nice price, nice hook), Orvis, Daichi, etc.. I honestly don't experience a big difference in most of my freshwater fishing - the biggest difference is appearance and that affects ME much more than it affects the fish biggrin.gif

 

Tight lines.

 

Joe C.

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Gamakatsu are my favorites, but I use a lot of Tiemco and Orvis (probably made by Daiichi?) hooks. I just started using the Eagle Claw R056 for my eggs for steelhead. 100 for around $5.

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Mainly Partridge, but like some of the Gamakatsu, Tiemco, Kamasan, Owner or Mustad models.

 

Tend to go for the right hook shape, weight, profile etc for the pattern. One thing that does get my goat is that dries tend to be too short along the shank for mayflies. Anyone would think that the nymphs shrink when they metamorphose into the adult.

 

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For everyday saltwater flies I'll use Mustad Signature.

 

For Tarpon, Cobia and other large fish I use Owner.

 

Salmon flies mostly Partridge but have used Gaelic Supreme and Daiichi.

 

Streamers; Partridge or Martinek from Gaelic Supreme.

 

For trout, anything that is available.

 

 

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