Hello Flybinder,

Well, not necessarily, in fact my first realistic was a hopper and I tied it with no hook inside. Then I tied two more hoppers on hooks. Next fly was a stonefly, and no hook inside. I did a step by step which was published by hatchmasters. The idea of fishing them was around. One or two months later Steve Thornton published his second volume of Listen to the River, with a solution to "no hooked" flies. It was great! Steve had found how to fish them.

To tie flies out of a hook is very interesting, it gives a lot of freedom. On the other hand tradition says that a fly must be tied on a hook.

Andr?s