Scud VS Standard Nymph hooks.

[FlySmyth]

I am tying up some disc midges and was wondering about your experience with tying them or other midges for that matter on standard instead of scud hooks.

I know a guy that ties his sows on straight hooks. Please help with some pointers on when to use which.

FlySmyth.

[Tightloop]

Flysmyth -

I use straight hooks on almost all my nymphs TMC 3761 or equivilant. Most nymphs including scuds, midges have more of a straight attitude when they swim/move. Scud hooks do have a wider gap that sometimes makes hooking easier.

Now on suspended dry fly patterns I use alot of curved shank (scud) hooks.

[Jason]

When sow bugs are in the water and floating with the current, they are usually in a stretched out position, not curled up. So tie them on a straight standard hook. With midges you should mix and match straight and curved.

[Sumner Newman]

straight shank hooks for scuds and scud hooks (curved shank) for chironomids. Sounds backwards, doesn't it. When scuds swim, they swim with their bodies stretched out straight, hence the straight shank hook. (If you're dead drifting scuds in moving water, a curved shank hook might be or probably is better, but if you're actively retrieving them in stillwaters, I think a straight shank hook is better.)
Chironomids use a very active wriggling motion to move through the water column and I've always felt the curved shank hook more accurately represents this wriggling motion than does a straight shank hook. Also, it seems that the real chironomid experts from BC (Chan, Rowley, et al.) also tie a lot or most of their chironomid patterns on curved shank hooks.

I'm actually not sure that it really makes very much difference to the fish, but those are my preferences.

[Fred]

Flysmyth,

A good hook for disco midges is the TMC 200R.

Check it out, you'll be hooked in no time.

[jdubya]

i think the 200r is the most versitile hook there is. people ask "what if you only had one fly?". I would ask "what if you only had one hook?": the 200R is the mama.

[Jason]

I'll have to dito the remarks on the Tiemco 200R style hook. I've been tieing a lot of nymphs with this hook as well as midge pupa patterns. Dennis has some ABI hooks with the 200R style that will work.