The Fly Tying Hook Guide

1- Hook Composition

We state this one as the most important yet easiest to understand.  Though all hooks these days are made from some secret recipe of high carbon steel or stainless steel, it’s important to know what you’re buying.  Stainless steel is corrosion resistant and will work best in saltwater but is also more expensive.  Almost all other hooks are made from high carbon steel, but the various properties make a difference.  See below for more information.

2- Hook Shank

The hook shank is likely the most important aspect of the fly to consider as it will effect the overall look and profile of the insect.  Common shank profiles are:

• Straight: The most standard option that is straight and level from the hook eye to the bend
• Curved – Varying degrees of this curve exist, but it curves the entire shank from start to end
• Jig – There are 60° and 90° jig style hooks which drop off at the 60° or 90° angle for about an eye length or so before coming up to a straightened out shank.  Used to make the fly float hook side up
• Kinked – Used for bass poppers or other poppers where a kink in the hook shank helps hold materials.  
• Swimming Curve – This is a wavy shank style that has a variety of different options but ultimately two curves in the hook.  Some end wavy end up, others wavy end down and some in between.
• Articulated – With the rise of articulated streamers, articulated hooks came out that have a specialty eye that makes it easier to tie on an articulated body without a hook so it’s a one fly hook, but articulated.
• Bent – This is a straight hook shank but with a bend of some angle in it.  While arguably a jig style hook is a bent hook, most bent hooks bend in the middle of the shank or slightly towards the thorax/front to allow for the fly to dip it’s lower end into the water.  Great for emergers or any dry fly.
• Specialty – There are a host of other shank styles, but they are rare or used for a certain hook.  Most specialty hooks can be described with the options or combination of options above as well.

3- Hook Weight

The weight refers to the diameter of the hook.  The bigger the diameter of the hook, the heavier it is and stronger it is.  This is what hooks refer to as 1x fine or 3x heavy etc.  Standard weights vary from company to company, and weights vary from 4x fine all the way to 6x heavy for fly tying hooks.  The weight is very important to consider when tying.

The weight will effect the profile and behavior of the fly on the water.  The lighter/finer the weight, the thinner the fly can be tied, the better it will float if it’s a dry fly or emerger and the less durable the hook will be in terms of bending out.  2x fine and 1x fine dry flies often get a bad rep for bending on trout, but this is the trade off for lighter flies that present better on the water than a 4x heavy dry fly (which I don’t think even exists for obvious reasons).  

Conversely, tying a heavy stonefly nymph on a 1x fine or even standard weight hook, is a detriment if you’re intent was to get a heavy nymph to the bottom.  Using 2x or 3x heavy weight makes it stronger, heavier and allows you to make less wraps when tying and will get your fly down deeper than the same fly tied with a finer weight.

See the diagram here to understand the weight trade off of strength and weight.

4- Hook Gap

The hook gap is the space from the hook point to the shank.  This gap effects hook sets and allows you to build bigger flies on bigger gapped hooks without missing out on hook set.  The gap along with the shank and eye, determine the way the hook sets into the fish.  The closer you can get to a circle, the better the hook will set into the fish.  Unfortunately, a circle hook itself is usually a bait hook and has a good chance to kill a fish, so as anglers who mainly practice catch and release, fly tying hooks maintain a certain hook shank/gap ratio that maximizes hook set without killing the fish.   

The wider the gap, the better the hook set but if it gets too far out of proportion the fly can float funny as a dry fly, but for nymphs, I think the wider the gap the better. 

Gaps Range from Normal to 4x Wide Gap

5- Hook Bend

The bend of the hook refers to on a straight shank, where the hook begins to bend down to the spear and point of the hook.  When you look at a continuous bend shank or something curved, you can’t tell really where it starts.  Using the hook point as a guide, that is how you tell where the bend begins.  The point of the bend is to balance the fly and maximize the hook set.  This varies greatly from fly to fly.  

The reason to understand the bend is in relation to actually tying the fly.  Some bends are better for certain patterns because of the way it presents the end materials near the bend.  A WD-40 nymph does well withe a sproat bend because the upper part of the bend is more gradual allowing the tail to bend down with less severity than a perfect-round bend would.  There are many types of bends, but the most common ones are:

• Perfect-Round – The standard bend in most hooks if not otherwise mentioned.  It is perfectly round with the top half of the bend being the same radii as the bottom.  Perfectly round.
• Sproat – This is the second most common and refers to the upper half of the bend to be less severe than the bottom.  Whatever the upper part of the bend reduces in it’s radii, the bottom half picks up.  See our gallery below for the best understanding.
• York – Very similar to a perfect-round bend but usually accompanies a small curve on the shank.  In my opinion, this isn’t a different bend, but you don’t get a york bend unless it’s a curved shank of some sort and then round bend and you see it on hook descriptions, so we want to mention it here.
• Limerick – is an overstated sproat bend often used on streamers.  It’s a more severe forward bend 

 6- Hook Eye

The hook eye is important and there are many different options that will effect the presentation of the fly.  Up eyes will help keep the fly near the surface so for steelhead streamers where you wish to to traditionally skate and swing the fly, this is essential.  The same is true for jig style hook eyes.  The angle of the bend on the jig hooks will make the fly float hook eye up and make a difference in the amount of flies that get lost to the bottom.

Most commonly dry flies are tied with a down eye on parachute or hackle based flies because it’s easier not to trap the hackle.  However, on a fly like a stimulator, I prefer a straight eye.  Straight and down eyes are both fine to tie with on any pattern really, just a matter of preference.  There is a matter of debate as to how it makes the fly float or be retrieved, but I have found most of these to be unfounded in any real facts.

Here are the hook eye options that are most commonly seen:

• Down Eye – Directly off the shank, the eye is oriented at around a 45° angle from the shank
• Straight Eye – As it sounds, the hook eye comes out straight from the hook shank.  This can be oriented downward if the shank is curved, but as long as it comes straight out on the shank, it’s a straight eye.
• Up Eye – It’s the opposite of a down eye and is orientated upwards off the shank at roughly a 45° angle
• Flat Eye – Here instead of the hook eye being horizontal to the hook shank, it is vertical.  Jig style hooks are like this and some streamer hooks are found this way in hopes of making the fly swim straighter.  I’ve found this to be a good option for articulated flies (the 2nd hook on an articulated fly)
• 60° Jig Eye – This is the standard “euro” nymph hook these days and the hook shank branches downward at a 60° angle for about a hook eye length and then you get a flat eye at the end.
• 90° Jig Eye – The same as the 60° jig eye except it’s at a 90° angle.  This is good for streamer patterns you want to swim and sit with the hook point up.  Crawdad patterns, and even clousers benefit from this hook eye style.

7 – Hook Length

The length of the hook is measured by the shank of the hook against the hooks gap.  Hook lengths are stated as standard or normal in the middle and then gets 1x – 6x short and 1x-8x long.  It’s as simple as longer means a longer shank in relation to the hook gap and shorter  means shorter in relation to the hook gap.

Pros, Cons and Considerations

Longer hooks will give you more room to tie on the same “size” fly and can be good for larger imitations where more room is needed to make the imitation look accurate to whatever it’s imitating.  This of course is subjective to the insect or anything you’re trying to imitate.  Don’t tie a parachute adams on a 6x long dry fly hook, it will look like a dragonfly.  However, if you’re aiming for a long dragonfly, a extra long dry fly hook may work.  The key is to match to hook to what you’re imitating.

At the end of the day a size #10 6x long Tiemco 300 is nearly the same size and shape as a #6 3x long streamer hook of similar qualities. It’s another way of stating the hook is longer and it’s fair to relate that to size.  When it comes to tying a fly of any kind, pay close attention to the hooks length as it effects the overall profile of the fly and though you swear you’re tying size #18 dry flies, you may be tying larger or smaller sizes because you’re tying on a 3x long or 3x short dry fly hook.  

8 – Hook Barb

If you want to get really geeky, there are tons of different hook barb compositions that have pros and cons according to the manufacturer.  I’ve fished all different kinds and I personally haven’t found a difference, so fish with whatever gives you confidence.

In terms of fly tying and hook composition however, it’s important to know that there are a few options out there and their pros and cons to tying are real.  Barbed and Barbless are you major options and the major difference is when adding beadheads.  

A Quick Soapbox for Barbless Flies

I believe barbless hooks are better to use for a few reasons.  With a barbless hook, you can get smaller beadheads on the same hook than a barbed.  I believe you get better hook sets with barbless as you have a smoother point of entry than having to increase the pressure to set the barb.  It allows you more versatility with tying flies as mentioned above, and is better on the fish and promotes healthy catch and release practices.  Lastly, they often come in black nickel which I think look much cooler than traditional bronze and that’s what it’s all about right? looking cool? 🙂 OK maybe not, but that with my other reasons above it is a better option in my opinion.  In addition, barbed hooks can tear up trout’s mouth, can hurt like hell if you hook yourself or your friend on accident and is really painful to remove and on smaller flies, it’s easy to break or damage the fly if you have a barb as it takes more effort to remove the hook which increases the chance to destroy the fly.

The downsides to barbless are you will lose a few more fish this way, but it greatly outweighs the negatives of barbed hooks and pros of barbless as mentioned above.

Ok soapbox finished.  Here are the major barb options:

• Barbed: The normal way you’ll see most hooks.  It has a raised point behind the hook point itself to prevent the hook from coming loose after it’s penetrated past the barb.
• Barbless:  A smooth hook point with no raised markings.  Makes for a smoother, more reliable hook set into a fish
• Straight Point – Barbed and Straight Point – Barbless:  Refers to the hook point itself.  Straight point or super point is a ultra thin and sharp hook point used on big game or fish that are known to have strong mouths that need help penetrating.  Straight Point or SP hooks are often more expensive but have superior hook setting capabilities due to the smaller diameter and longer hook point.

9 – Hook Finish

This refers to the color of the hook when finished.  Most hooks have a bronze finish, but black nickel is becoming more popular.  There are also steel and stainless steel colors and red finishes.  These are nearly all aesthetic in purpose.  Though manufacturers will claim that black nickel or some finish makes the hook sink faster, resist drag and magically attract trout, it is all pretty much just for looks.  That’s not a bad thing however, hooks should look good and so should your flies.  I’ve said it before, but ugly flies catch fish, and pretty flies catch fishermen, but a properly tied fly often catches both.  

Often black nickel hooks are offered barbless and with straight point options, but that isn’t always the case, just a good generalization.

Personally, I’m very partial to the black nickel finish.  It’s like tying my fly on a nice suit or tuxedo.  Everyone has different preferences, but thought I’d share my two cents on it.