ThreeJsDad 0 Report post Posted February 2, 2012 A couple weeks past i was doing a tying demo and one of the folks asked me what size hook I was tying on. I told him I didn't know and when I got a puzzled look from a couple of the folks I thought I should explain. Over 10 years ago I quit tying my flies based on hook size. I did this after reading Hatches II where the bugs were described in mm and inches. With all the different hooks available it made more sense to me to go that route. Once I decided that I started fooling more fish and bigger fish. Fish don't know anything about hook sizes but they know what size the bug should be. I would suggest that it is far more important to know the size of the bug than to know the size of the hook. I thought you folks might enjoy this little tip. Paul Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kirk Dietrich 0 Report post Posted February 2, 2012 To add to that, hook gap sizes vary so widely depending on hook style and manufacturer. There are some wide gap hooks designated as #10 that have a gap and sometimes even shank length more like a 1/0. Kirk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaydub 0 Report post Posted February 2, 2012 I made myself a chart of the shank length vs size of the hook styles I commonly use. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThreeJsDad 0 Report post Posted February 2, 2012 Another situation happened a couple weeks ago on a local stream. There were Olives coming off and a guy I met on the river asked me what size and I replied 4-5mm and he just looked at me and said what size hook. I told him I had no clue but showed him one of my flies. For me the point got driven home when I fished the W. Branch of the Delaware River in NY. Matching what was on the water was key to hooking fish. When I fished Henry's a couple of years ago the point was driven further into my decision making process. Think of it this way, if you are trying to tie a bug that is 4mm in length and you are off by 1mm, you are off by 25%. As for hooks varying, I agree 100% and I even do it to myself. Rather than tie a size 26 I tie on a 22-2X short so I still have a decent gap. To make matters even worse I tie pretty much all my subsurface flies on scud hooks which are really hard to get an idea of what size they are supposed to be. I guess all of this is why I would rather know what bug/s the fish are eating than to know what pattern/s someone is using. If there is one point I am really trying to make it's get to know the bugs and simply tie the appropriate fly on what ever size hook and it what ever way works for you. For me that has been much easier to make sense of. Paul Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
