withdrawn withdrawn

When you've been at it a while you'll find that straight eyed hooks are excellent with a Perfection Loop ie free to swing but tend , with a shut down tightened knot, to adopt a slight angle to the mainline - this isn't great for presentation .

And yes you are right - the upeyed hook devised by Halford in the 1880's was not a great idea for dryflies - but it works well on longer hooks - like Salmon Irons and almost any longshank lure dressing in practise .

Just try a few years flyfishing and I'll bet you may agree .

Best wishes

Steve P

withdrawn withdrawn

The follow information is from a previous post.
The only time it matters much is when using really small hooks. The down eyes have the tendency to narrow the gap of the hook. So up eyes or ring eyes (straight) are much more suitable for smaller flies #18-24.

Up eyes were created to be used with gut that was knotted by threading the gut through the eye and round the shank. A typical such knot is the Turtle Knot. The leader pulls on the shank not the eye so the hook travels in a straight (ish) line on the strike.

Up eyes are very poor if used with knots that work by being wrapped around the eye. Such knots as the Grinner or variants of the Blood Knot make these hooks pass through an arc on the strike and for a significant part of the strike the hook point is actually being pulled away from making contact with the fish’s mouth. Fish caught on up eyed hooks tied on this way are very unlucky indeed.

If you try a Turtle Knot with monofilament there is a good chance it will slip free.

Down eyed hooks again were designed to be tied on the line using Turtle type knots so the line was threaded through the eye and wrapped around the shank to get a straight pull. However, if the hook is tied on with a Grinner or Blood Knot variant the hook is pulled through an arc on the strike but the point is pulled towards the fishes mouth throughout the strike. So down eyed hooks work well. They do have the disadvantage of a narrowed gape and in the small sizes the gape becomes far too small to work well.

For modern monofilaments and the knots we use today like Grinner etc the best eye is a straight ring eye. This makes the hook move in the best way during the strike.
BK

Hello in my view there a a few factors regard the style of hooks, reason to use them, presentation of the artificial fly in or on the water, and the way trout take, up or down or straight and other styles used in the past created by well thinking fisherman. all have there merits in catching fish. you are right to learn more on this so can catch even a wile big brown that eludes even the most delicate of artificials. this last 3 years one such fish did so i gave up, thinking who is wiser, me or the trout, am i a **** fly fisherman, no a deserving case of life.

ok i think i got some up eye kamasan dry fly hooks between 12 and 16 what should i use em for as i use cinched blood knots to tie my flies on?

I remember when I was learning to tie flies fifty five years ago ianm, all dries were tied on up eyed hooks and all wets on down eyed hooks. The older guys like myself, have learned a lot since then, how times change. { for the better, I must say.}
Billy.

I may be in the minority here, but I still use quite a lot of up eyed hooks for my dry flies, and I haven't noticed any difference in catch rate one bit.
Just my 2p worth.
S.

__________________
"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Hello i will second that billy, and still have those old hooks in my box, not to use though, think today much better made and sharper.

I just purchased 40 up eyed size 16 hooks for tying dry flies, I normally use straight eye'd hooks but they were out of size 16 so got these. I didnt think this would effect the presentation of the fly but not so sure about reading this thread, Should i take them back or will they do just aswell as straight eye or down eye'd hooks ??
Thanks Ryan