Recent floods

[SCOwens 0]

Yeah not sure, but I have never snapped one. He blamed it on cranking down on the hook in the vise. Who knows as for now I will stick with Gamakatsu

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

A micro nick in the steel of a hook will certainly provide a nice snapping point.

 

Have you/ya'll tried the Mustad Signature Series hooks yet on your reds? I've been tying a lot of flies on them for other folks and haven't heard any complaints. Haven't had a chance to fish them yet myself.

 

Kirk

[iFly 0]

Kirk, haven't tried them yet but I'll see if I can find some. I need to restock my hooks soon so ill see if I can find a pack or two. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Peterjay 0]

Sometimes there is a bad batch of hooks. I've used the Gamakatsu SC15 and other Gama hooks in addition to Mustad and Tiemcos and a friend that fishes almost exclusively with SC15 for tarpon down in the keys for the last fifteen years and haven't had that happen. 34007s are a soft ss and will straighten on ex-large fish in the smaller sizes. Thier new signature series seem a lot stronger but I haven't field tested them on bulls but have had some good reports of them holding up.

Years ago, when Tiemco first came out with their equivalent to the 34007, a rep sent me a few boxes. They snapped left and right. When I told him, he looked in to it and found out that their steel mixture of off and they had a batch that was brittle. Maybe something like that happened with SCOwens' friend/s.

 

Kirk

 

I've been using Mustad Signature Series hooks for years on striper/bluefish/tuna flies, and IMO, they're as good as anything out there. Needle-sharp and very strong. The vast majority of my flies are tied on Mustad SS's and I've never had a hook straighten or break. They're a vast improvement over the old Mustad stainless steel hooks.