Hook anatomy and hook types
Mustad 34011 streamer hooks

This used to be my favourite hook. For a long time I had a love/hate relationship to this hook. On one side it is a very nice hook for tying my darling flies - the Palmer hackled Magnus types - but on the other side it is a bit on the small side when it comes to hook gap.

The picture shows one of the reasons why I hated this hook. The top row is a #2/0, a #4 and a #10 while the two lower ones are a #6 and a #8. Have a closer look at the #4. I didn't bend it- that is another problem. A lot of these hooks come with errors: skews, bends, open eyes and worse. I used to buy one hundred at a time, and often five of them could be trashed immediately. Of the rest there would always be a few with open eyes, where the tying thread slipped in and frayed. I hate that!

Lately I've also fallen in love with shorter hooks with a wider gap, like the Partridge John Holden or the Tiemco 811S.

You can see the difference between the same fly made on these two different hooks on the picture hereby, or on the color pictures of the long and short version of the Umbrella in The Fly Gallery.

Read more about salt water hooks for Scandinavian fishing

Hooks   B175   34011   Holden   840B   800/820   Emerger   TMC700   Selecting   Broken

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