What are your favorite hooks to tie with and why?

[Jeff Brooks]

I spent most of the last two years experimenting with three brands of hooks in the various sizes that I use (sizes 8-14 in 1X-4X long depending on the pattern) to determine which hooks I like the best for the Stillwater patterns that I tie. I used Mustad, Daiichi, and Tiemco hooks to try to get a feel for the differences between some of the various hooks in various price ranges. I'll admit upfront that the differences are subtle, and any of the brands will probably do the job just fine, but here is what I've noticed.

Strength: I used a simple test to see which brand of hooks would hold the most weight without bending and the Tiemco hooks were the strongest hooks. They come in 1X-3X heavy whereas the other brands (at least the hooks we used) only came in 1X heavy.

Sharpness: This was totally subjective, but we felt like the Daiichi and Tiemco hooks were the sharpest hooks with the Mustad hooks coming in second place.

Price: Mustad is the winner, Daiichi next, and Tiemco the most expensive.

Quality: Daiichi and Tiemco were about even with a slight edge going to Tiemco and with Mustad a somewhat distant second.

Based on these criteria, I selected Tiemco as my hook of choice while my 13-year-old son uses Mustad hooks (he has to buy his own hooks and I supply the materials).

In the end is there a great deal of difference in our hook-up rate? Or is there a difference in how long a fly will last? Is the hook failure rate any different? The answer to all three questions is undeniably NO. So why do I pay twice as much for my hooks as Kyle does??? I have no idea…

So, what hooks do you guys use and why?

[Crosby]

Depends on what I am tying- but for the winter and the smaller drys- Tiemco short shank wide gap. The impressin of a smaller fly- usually tied short to start with and still having that wide gap hooking properties. Daichi or Dai Rikki on my small scuds and pupas------ but just a personal preference from a long time ago- I don't use Mustads.

[Mike]

I'll admit that Mustad wins on price, but as someone who rarely ties anything bigger than a size 16, I find Mustad hooks to be fairly weak and of lower quality in the smaller size ranges. It's kind of strange actually. I've always found that Mustad hooks are a bit "bulkier" than Tiemco or Dai-Riki hooks of the same size, yet they tend to break more often. I've broken a number of Mustad hooks both at the vice and on the water.

I like both Tiemco, which is what I use primarily, and Dai-Riki hooks. Dai-Riki has some more interesting hook shapes than Tiemco IMO. I think that it's a bit easier to tie natural looking nymphs with Dai-Riki's. That's not to say that Tiemco doesn't have a bunch of good hooks. I guess that they all have their uses!

[Wes Johnson]

For most of my normal nymph patterns I like the Mustad 3906B. It is strong and holds. I have had some Tiemco nymph hooks straighten out and lost a few fish.

Streamer and woolly-buggers I like the Tiemco 200 series.

Dry flies the Tiemco stands out. However, for my humpies and other heavy body patterns I like the Mustad 3906B.

Scuds Daicji or Tiemco.

When it gets down to the midge patterns, Tiemco is my choice, especially in the 20-24 sizes.

Mustad got a bad rap about being brittle a few years ago about the quality of their hooks. Seems the rumor was started by a Tiemco hook saleman who wanted to increase his sales.

I have a couple hundred of Eagle Claw fly tying hooks that never made it to the market. They are teflon coated and very good. However, the barb tends to break off when I bend the barb down.

[Curtis Fry]

After a bout of hooking into fish and having the hooks either break, bend out or not pierce the fish's mouth, I haven't used Mustad hooks for anything smaller than a 12. That was quite a few years ago, though, so I'm not sure if that still holds true. I currently just go with Tiemco, cuz I know their sizes and styles. Plus I do agree that their small dry fly hooks are the "best".

I'm sure you'll get the varied responses with hooks as you would with asking about rods in a lot of ways.

[Ouzel]

Good post and good question. As you say the differences can be subtle.
Maybe because when I started tying Mustad was about the only hook around and maybe when I've used other brands I 've not been able to decern a meaningful difference.
When the newer brands came out with different profiles Mustad soon came out with theirs and their prices were still lower.
Probably because of those reasons I have always (mainly) used Mustad.
I have not experienced any problem at the tying desk as I generally use the lightest thread. And I've not had any bending or breaking problems when fishing, even with the smaller hooks.
Poor Mike, I guess he still lacks "firm finesse", but I understand he is quite a nice fellow :-).

[mcgx2]

I probably use Mustad for about 85% of my tying. Tiemco and others are very good hooks and maybe superior but I started using Mustad long ago and old habbits are hard to break. I've had very few problems with hooks breaking and with the amount of flies I tie and lose to trees and bushes, and sons robbing my fly boxes the economics play a large part in my choice also. For the price Mustad is very hard to beat.

mcg

[Strike]

I use ABI. They are inexpensive (rather than cheap) and they are very sharp. I loose too many flies before they have a chance to wear out so I couldn't tell you how they hold up. I still have a million flies tied on mustad, and many hooks, but I don't plan on buying any more mustads. For about the same price I can have a far better hook in an ABI. I think mustads are fine for most situations, however I don't like their barb. It is really big- especially on the bigger size 6 and 8 2x streamer hooks. (9671) If there is one thing that bothers me more that anything else when I am tying, it is running out of the hooks I need, so I stock up on them.

[Light Cahill]

I must add my input on the Mustad. I like the size 16-20 nymph hooks, but find their straight-eye dry-fly hooks substandard. I must have lost 25% of my hooked fish on the straight eye #18 Mustad hooks on the Ogden this last year.

[Wes Johnson]

Interesting comment yesterday morning by Paul Stimpson at the Saturday morning session at High Country.

Paul noted that he sends nearly 1/4 of the Dai-Riki hooks back to his source because they are inferior. In Paul's estimation Dai-Riki started getting their hooks made in Korea and they are using a lower quality steel.

As many of you know Paul is a professional fly-tyer and ties for Dan Bailey, and many others in the West Yellowstone area. Paul also does most of the tying for the late Gary LaFontaine, and continues to tie for the Bookmailer.

[BugEye]

And don't forget this scintillating conversation about hooks...

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Is it that dead around here ?