flytire 0 Report post Posted July 6, 2014 Bend a half dozen hooks and tie your fly. Use those flies and go fishing. Record the results Be creative. Experiment! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kennebec12 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2014 A couple may flies I tied on bent hooks. Next challenge is to see if they act the way I want on the water, and then if they catch fish. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crackaig 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2014 The important thing is not to try to make a sharp bend. Before Klinkhamer hooks became available with the bend. I bent thousands. If you used pliers with flat jaws to make the bend the hook wire was bending around a sharp corner, so it broke. If you use wire bending pliers (with rounded jaws) they don't. (I'm trying not to get into an explanation involving the granular structure of metals here) Its all about how the stress on the metal is concentrated or spread. You can deform the wire only a little at one given point before it fails, so the curve spreads the stress. If you do need a sharp bend you will need to heat treat the hook where you want to bend it. It just gets too technical at that point, and is not worth looking into unless you are doing lots. Cheers, C. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2014 Kennebec, those look great, but I question the amount of bend. There's been lots of discussions about up eye vs, down eye hooks, and whether it affects the hook set. Jury's pretty much in agreement on the fact that if it does, it's negligible. But the way you've bent that hook, I think it might act the same as bending the gap open. You might get a hook set, although I am not sure of that. But if you get a good fish on, the pull on the hook bend is going to be at the wrong angle, and the gap is going to be straightened out. They LOOK great ... I am not sure they are going to fish great. Only a problem if you get that fish of a life time, only to lose it due to hook failure. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kennebec12 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2014 Crackaig I bent it by pulling it against some metal tubing to give it a slight curve. I think the bend looks more drastic because of the way I tapered the body. mikechell I think your right and I'm worried about the same thing, but most of the brook trout I catch are less than a foot and with a 3wt rod I'm hoping they will survive. With that said I'll probably go out next time and hook a state record and lose it, that would be my luck. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted July 8, 2014 Take a camera with you ... always seems to keep the trophy fish away from me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
