Hooks For Foam Flies

[mikefromsundre]

Wife and I were on the Ram this week. Fish were in love with any big foam fly with lots of rubber leg wiggling. The only problem was hook up. The dry fly hooks I used for foam flies have too small of a gap once all that foam is tied on top. So continuing with the topics of the 2 thread below -what hooks are you using for big foam flies? Club sandwich, Chern. ants, Alien bugs in sizes 12 and up...

[Flytyer]

Try some of the streamer hook styles, they vary in gap width and shank length ; also some of the larger nymph hook styles are good as well

[ÜberFly]

Mike,

 

I have had the same problem recently with some "Skid Bitches" I purchased online... Makes sense as to why the fish were hitting the fly, but not getting hooked...

 

Thanks,

 

P

 

Wife and I were on the Ram this week. Fish were in love with any big foam fly with lots of rubber leg wiggling. The only problem was hook up. The dry fly hooks I used for foam flies have too small of a gap once all that foam is tied on top. So continuing with the topics of the 2 thread below -what hooks are you using for big foam flies? Club sandwich, Chern. ants, Alien bugs in sizes 12 and up...

 

[admin]

What hook are you using? You could move up a size on a shorter shanked hook perhaps.

[SilverDoctor]

Look for wide gap dry fly hooks like Diachi 1110. I don't like too long a shank as it provides leverage for the fish to throw the hook.

[Bigtoad]

I'm no expert on fly tying or fishing. Hook size might be the issue but perhaps your hook-set timing is also the issue? I find the bigger the fly + the bigger the fish = a very long time to wait before setting the hook. I know this has been covered in other threads but waiting several seconds or saying something like "son of a bitch" before setting the hook allows the fish to take the fly, turn back down with it, and "chew" it a bit. If I am getting hits but just feeling them for a second and then they're off, that if a wait a fraction longer, I'll have a MUCH better hook-up rate.

 

Cutts are probably the hardest to wait for because if the water is clear, you get to see them coming up from the bottom for several (or 10+ !!!!) feet and by the time they take your fly, your so psyched out that you set immediately. It's like when I used to try and play slow pitch baseball, I'd always foul to left field because I couldn't wait for the ball to get to me. I watched it coming for too long and had too much time to think.

 

Anyway, waiting longer might be something to try as well as getting a wider hook gap.

 

Cheers.

[agbff]

I use a streamer hook and bend the shank down at around the one third point.

I think it looks the same to the fish and gives a little more room for hookups.

[KnotLikely]

To help with hookups on your existing flies with not enough gap, you can try bending the point out to the side siwash style.

 

Any 3x or better streamer or nymph hook should work fine. With the buoyancy of the foam, you don't need to worry about the extra weight of the hook. A Tiemco 200R or equivalent is nice for big foam flies, stimulators and hoppers.

 

 

[Flytyer]

I've tied some on mustad 37160s before, different look to these but seem to work great.