Do you tie on Mustad hooks ?

[ted patlen]

Here's a couple of hook charts I use. I am partial to Mustads for dries--especially Haystacks (94838) and Bombers (9671). I also use them a lot for flymphs (94842) and wets (7948, 7957 and 3399). Keep in mind I use vintage hooks--and love the deep dark bronzing. I'm also partial to Partridge and Allcock hooks--the Partridge L2A and L3A hooks especially.

For very small hooks--22/24 I prefer Tiemcos--better tempering.

Like Patlen, I'll use pretty much anythign, and it's always fun finding a weird hook like VMC or Seeley and finding it works just right for the whatever you are tying int he moment.

bb'

Love the chart...lots of time involved. Easy to see the subtle differences in some of the styles.

[bearbutt]

Love the chart...lots of time involved. Easy to see the subtle differences in some of the styles.

Thanks, Ted--. I can do better the next time around, as the chart has too much shadow--but you can see the bend/length/gape/barb differences--and with some, the kirbed/reversed shanks. You can't see the eyes well, and there's a lot of variation with eyes--. In an ideal world, every hook would have a 3-d revolving scan--lol.

Plus, the selection here is fairly small--my most commonly-used hooks. I could add many others, I suppose, as there are tons of great vintage hooks still out there. But at a certain point, you get information overload, and the details start to blur a bit.

One good tool for differentiating hooks is Dick Stewart's hook book--it's go great info on lengthy, wire, gape, etc. for Partridge, Mustad, TMC, VMC, and Kamasan hooks made through the 1980s. The hook weight info is all wrong, the weights are for multiples, not single hooks--but aside from this, it's a useful reference book if you are into old Mustads.

Tying and organizing hooks is something we can all do when the temps are too warm for fishing.

Cheers,
bb

[Flykuni3]

Um yes.

[gaddis]

I have used Mustad hooks for almost all of my tying for the last 42 years, with few exceptions. I don’t doubt there are better hooks out there, but the Mustads are what I’m familiar with, am comfortable with, know all the model numbers, etc. I’m not likely to change.

[roycestearns]

It's pretty hard to argue with 189 years of hook making.

[Flykuni3]

Big big fan of the great old straight-eyed 9674 streamer hook for my #14 Wooly Buggers, peacock n grizz.

[ted patlen]

On a side note, in Norway, it is pronounced "moos stahd". If I remember correctly, the fly tying hooks are a very small percentage of their products, something like 15%. Just some info you pick up.

Really nice chart Royce

[6tUc05]

As Norse is a Germanic language, and being of German descent; with possibly one very minor exception, your indicating the Norse pronunciation would be dead on. The Germans would add a faint "t" sound to the terminal D (Dt) (you have to know how to hold your mouth!).

[billems]

The new hooks, of every brand, are superior in quality to most of the old Mustads.

Two hooks that I miss, however, are the 3906b and the plain old 3906. My wets and

nymphs looked beautiful on them.

[bearbutt]

The new hooks, of every brand, are superior in quality to most of the old Mustads.

"Of every brand"? LOL--There's a lot of overtempered brittle junk out there today. And also some great stuff, like Hanak--so I wouldn't be so quick to generalize.

bb

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Sometimes these new fangled extra long and thin barbless " needle " / " super " points get bent....
I need to check them much more as they are quicker to bend... which is my fault somehow. (errant casting, ticking rocks.. etc..)

In the never ending search for stronger hooks, with these old style Mustads, I may have found my answer...
or at least another way to make it fun trying to figure it out.

Interesting link - https://mustad-fishing.com/

[Flykuni3]

Regal vise pressure may be too much for some Mustads (one reason I went to Renz), and they sometimes break when squashing barbs. I still like them.

[Flykuni3]

.

[bearbutt]

In the never ending search for stronger hooks, with these old style Mustads, I may have found my answer...
or at least another way to make it fun trying to figure it out.

LOL--fun, indeed. You might want to go through this thread on the Sparse Grey Matter Boards--where The Hookmesiter, Theroe, started sharing with others hook porn:

https://www.sparsegreymatter.com/viewto ... =17&t=7988

There are a few real hook nerds there.

Also, a good online resource for hook comparisons is: http://flyhooks.org/ Here you can find the most comprehensive data on hooks presently available (at least that I know of).

Also good is the chapter "The Problem of Hooks" in Datus Proper's book What the Trout Said.

Happy hooking,
bb

[rsagebrush]

Mustad has always made great hooks, I still use the 3906 and 3906B, nice heavy wet fly hooks, and the up eye hooks. Some Partidges I have tried bend out pretty easily. The Japanese hooks are really nice too. I have had very few hooks break on me in the vice and hardly none on fish but I have had small light wire hooks straighten out on me.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Soon these empites will be in the river... dressed to kill by that time.

Who'm I kidding ? these are the same hooks to tie up and lose right away as if they were any other...

[Dwight]

I love the variety of shapes and eyes available on the older vintage Mustads and I tie most of my patterns on them. The filed points seem superior to the conical points on modern hooks and that’s an advantage I seek, particularly for my wet flies. But I’ve found the wire on hooks like the 94840 so soft that I regularly open the hook on large trout. I don’t mind releasing a fish that way because I deliberately put a lot of pressure on fish (to the side) to land them quickly, but I do mind losing use of the fly so soon.

[Dave in Maine]

Yes.

I'm so old, I remember getting a box of 100 94845 hooks for the price of an envelope of 25 today.

[NshTrtBum]

Yes I've tied on them for years, but during the Pandemic I've been forced to use a lot of Japanese hooks.

I was given some "softies" that came from BPS that hit the garbage shortly after the first few bent under the thread pressure in the vice.

Tight lines y'all,
Brett

[baard]

Hi all!
For hook-nerds I found this site a while back:
http://flyhooks.org/
Mustad is of course well represented.

Best regard,
Baard/Oslo