About Hooks

Beware of cheap hooks! Not to be a bigot, but cheap imported Chinese hooks are exactly that cheap. I became aware of buying cheap metal products, even if they were drop-forged and zinc-coated. The telltale strip of rust always gave them away. J-hooks to pull limbs together require both strength and weather protection. A failure would be catastrophic. Someone being crushed when they failed is not a good outcome. We always tried to buy zinc-coated drop-forged eyes and lag hooks. Threading rod was always difficult due to the glut of cheap foreign steel on the market.

So, why are hooks different? They aren’t. You need a good, well-made hook to handle a large fish, and the pressure needs to turn the fish and get them to the net. The market is flooded with bad hooks and other flitting materials. We all succumbed to the economy of the fly and occasionally used the wrong hook and size because that’s what we had on hand.

So you want to bring your fly-tying skills to the next level? Buy good material. Just don’t make do. Tying your own flies isn’t about saving money. It’s about making nice-looking fishable flies. Is it cheaper to just buy flies? Probably, but you would end up with a box full of cheap, badly made flies. Someone told me that flies are like bullets; expect to lose them. Fly-tying is an art, not just a task to fill those empty boxes. My mantra is still to tie flies that you use all the time. Stick to four or five flies. You don’t need the life cycle of every aquatic insect. Just a few that represent what’s living in your stream. Fish your home waters and fish it well.