Old flies question.

Quite some time back, I saw photos and at least one thread about flies tied on eyeless hooks. As I recall, they were snelled with catgut originally, and this catgut 'snelling' was attached to the hook shank directly, within the body of the fly. It extended out of the fly, I believe, only a couple inches, with a loop to attach the fly to the tippet. The photos showed beautifully tied flies, usually older historic and classic patterns. At the time, these eyeless hooks were becoming extremely scarce I believe. Does this ring a bell for any of y'all out there ? I'd like to revisit this method and style of flies, hopefully give it a try. Thanks to all !

Another thing just came to mind, these were fair-sized flies, as was most of the really old stuff, rods aand reels as well. As our technology advanced, we could manufacture not only eyed hooks, but increasingly smaller ones. This type of fly became obsolete as a result. Being a bone-deep lover of history and the old ways, I'm a sucker for learning and keeping alive some of these lost arts.

I think that Eric Austin who used to do the old flies column for FAOL has a web site devoted to classic flies. I just googled classic flies to see if I could find it and found many sites devoted to the subject. Look in the menu on the page for the column with many articles on this site.

There are many Atlantic Salmon flies tied with the 'old style' eyeless hook. We have some great tyers up here in the northwest that also make their own hooks, all being eyeless.

Larry ---sagefisher---

A good resource is the Classic Flytying forum; there are a number of snelled patterns, hopefully something of interest for you

http://www.classicflytying.com/

Regards,
Scott

Rainbowchaser,, sagefisher, scottp.... Thanks, boys.... for the jumpstart. I'm off and runnin'. I will provide updates...

Modocdan,

I spent most of last year learning how to tie this style of flies. They truly are beautiful. Silkworm gut was also used to make the snells and looped eyes. Although the original eye less hooks are becoming harder to find, there are hook manufacturers like Gaelic Supreme that are still making some gorgeous eye-less irons. I have attached a few examples of my ties below:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...&1485915531646

Above is the New Lake, this one has a looped eye made of silkworm gut. The one below is a Tomah Joe. This is one of my early ties, before I got comfortable with how the flies looked. I "cheated" making a snell out of monofilament.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...&1485915531646

Finally, my personal favorite, the FG Simpson. Again, this one has a monofilament snell.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...&1485915531649

Another great resource for these patterns (other than Eric Austin - he is top notch) is Lee Schechter.

Hope this helps,

Alberto

Thank you, Alberto, that's exactly what I mean... Excellent flies. And, Larry, I needed the reminder about the guys up there making their hooks. I'll be getting some pronto. I have feathers & such enough to get well into it. Thanks again...