Kamasan Fly Hooks

[texfly]

Anyone use or have an opinion about Kamasan fly hook's? They seem to be a favorite of Davie McPhail who's work I really admire. The B160 he use's on some pattern's that's a short shank , wide gape seem's very nice and logical in smaller size's. What do you think? Thanks

[Donald Nicolson]

The Kamasan is a very well known hook brand here in the UK. It has been around for many years.
The short shank wet fly hook is a popular style for many patterns. I can't say I've seen it much
on North American patterns. What fly was Davie dressing?

[texfly]

I've seen him tie a dry and an emerger on the B160. He says the short shank allows a short body without giving up the gape. As in the #16 has the gape of a #14.

[Donald Nicolson]

Well! It sounds like Davie has answered why he uses the short shank. I have not seen this
hook pattern for sale on American suppliers sites. I'll give you a UK site that sells Kamasan.
They are usually very reasonably priced. Be back in a minute.

Here they are on Glasgow Angling,
http://www.fishingmegastore.com/kamasan-hooks_598.html

[texfly]

Thanks for the tip Donald. Do you use them on any of your pattern's?

[Donald Nicolson]

I have used the Kamasan, but not the short shank. I'm sure I have them in my hook
collection, but I have not used them for a while, I'll have to look them out now.

[jszymczyk]

. As in the #16 has the gape of a #14.

Then it's a 14 with a short shank, not a 16 with a big gap.... I wish to God the hook makers would adopt a standard regarding hook sizes. Mustad has done BY FAR the best with their signature hooks, it all makes sense once you take 93 seconds to understand the code. IMO (which is worth what...?) the hook SIZE should always refer to the gap-- shank length is irrelevant to the number size.

[whatfly]

shank length is irrelevant to the number size.

Huh? While I might agree that the hook model numbers are hard to keep track of across vendors, not sure why this would make life any easier. Problem is there really isn't an ideal "standard hook" nor a standard proportion out there from which all other hook sizes could be derived from, and even if there were, why would that necessarily simplify matters (imagine a 1.5XL, 1.75XH hook). Each manufacturer starts with some sort of base line but there are going to be variations in proportions not only across styles, but within styles as well.

Best way of dealing with the confusion is to stick with a single vendor, focus on as few hooks styles as you can cope with, and ignore everyone else. For the rest of, I don't mind dealing with subtle variations across vendors if they produce a style or type of hook that I both like and catches fish...and yes, the first criteria is more important to me than the second, although I require BOTH criteria to be met.

[texfly]

Very nice pattern Donald. It's those types of pattern's that got me interested in the hook's. They really seem to better fit those type of wet fly pattern's.

[jaybo41]

I've seen him tie a dry and an emerger on the B160. He says the short shank allows a short body without giving up the gape. As in the #16 has the gape of a #14.

I tied this pattern last season and smashed them. Fished the same nymph all day until it literally unraveled on the leader after countless fish.

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/fly...m?parentID=157

Charlie Craven recommends the TMC 921 which I believe has the short body and wide gape that you're looking for. Nice hook but none of my local shops carry them. I ordered them from Charlie. Love his tutorials. Davie is quite the accomplished tier, hard not to admire the guy. His ties are brilliant and his tutorials have inspired me countless times.