Hook Choice

[Booman2]

Any suggestions for a good quality dry fly hook: straight eye, 1x short and barbless? I'm not getting lucky so far.

[twistedtippet]

TMC 206 BL is the closest I could find. Slight upturned eye 2x short
https://www.jsflyfishing.com/mas_assets ... x-9489.Jpg
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[Hellmtflies]

Ditto on the TMC BL series.

[ibookje]

What (kind of) pattern are you tying?

[Sandan]

Straight eye 1xs are tough. I buy barbed hooks and crush the barb before putting 'em in the vise. Daiichi 1110, TMC 101's, Umpqua U003 are straight eye but standard length.

[BigTJ]

Try the Guru LWG, at tactical fly fisher, I think that is what you are asking for, ring eye 1x short and barbless:

https://www.tacticalflyfisher.com/guru ... less-hook/

Another option is the Tiemco 2488. It’s 2x short 3x wide I’ve had good luck with it too. But it’s not barbless so probably doesn’t fill the bill.

Cheers,

John

[WiFlyFisher]

Cheak out Daiichi 1110 Wide Gape Dry Fly Hook. It is 1x fine, wide gap, and has a mini barb that is easy to pinch down to make barbless.

John

[BigTJ]

The Daiichi 1110 is standard length as already mentioned above - he wants 1x short. It’s a lot like the Tiemco 101. The only hook that ticks all the boxes I’m aware of is the Guru LWG.

John

[WiFlyFisher]

The Daiichi 1110 is standard length as already mentioned above - he wants 1x short. It’s a lot like the Tiemco 101. The only hook that ticks all the boxes I’m aware of is the Guru LWG.

John

John, the Guru LWG hooks look interesting. I have never heard of them before,

But every time I read "standard length" it makes me cringe, even "wide gap" makes me dizzy.



Hook standards are a PITA.

John

[BigTJ]

You are 100% right about standard - there is no standard!

I use a lot of competition sized hooks of different brand and have a chart of shank length in mm so I can keep track vs the size of my local insects.

John

PS in the picture above the bottom hook does not look like a Tiemco 100. The wire should be flat like a 94840. That round wire looks like a nymph hook. The gap is too narrow and the bend doesn’t look right for a 100 either. Guessing it might be a TMC 3761 or similar 1x nymph hook with regular gap and round bend.

Here is a Tiemco 100 and 3769. See the flat wire and wide gap on the 100. Both size 12 both “standard” length from same manufacturer. The 100 is longer but I think that is to accommodate the normal tie-in point halfway between the barb and hook point on a dry fly. Notice the bend is flatter on the apex. Hard to see in my crappy photo but the wire on the bend is flat.

John

[BigTJ]

For another comparison a TMC 100 and Umpqua 600 BL BN competition hook. The Umpqua is shorter by about an eye. The competition hooks not only hold trout way better their center of gravity is lower on the hook so the flies ride upright better.

John

[WiFlyFisher]

John,

Yes, it is TMC 100 BL. My old eyes don't see good enough anymore, so I took a macro shot again. I purchased the TMC 100 BLs in several sizes last year for the HF hatches.



My original point was there are no standards. That is all I was trying to say.

Happy tying.

John

[BigTJ]

Thanks for confirming my eyes aren't the best - that 94840 is indeed pretty short.

-John

[Booman2]

Many thanks for all the input. Trying to tie the perfect Trico spinner.

[BigTJ]

Tactical Fly Fisher also just got a new hook called the Baetis 500 BL which looks like a great short-shank ring eye barbless hook for tricos.

John

[Sandan]

Jstockard ahrex fw516. Rings all your bells

[BigTJ]

Jstockard ahrex fw516. Rings all your bells

He is looking for barbless - so FW 517.

Question - how do folks like the Ahrex hooks? I’ve seen them on the rack they look like the wire is generally too thick and finish quality isn’t up to snuff. The photo of the FW517 makes the hook wire look really thick, almost like an egg hook. I should probably just buy some and try them out.

[Sandan]

Jstockard ahrex fw516. Rings all your bells

He is looking for barbless - so FW 517.

Question - how do folks like the Ahrex hooks? I’ve seen them on the rack they look like the wire is generally too thick and finish quality isn’t up to snuff. The photo of the FW517 makes the hook wire look really thick, almost like an egg hook. I should probably just buy some and try them out.

Yeah, 517. I crush all my barbs before I even put them in vise so to me it makes no diff but thanks for pointing that out. I've used Ahrex hooks for streamers and some nymphs. They're good hooks.

[MtBrittany]

Tiemco 101 (I clip the barb down on them).