Hi Allan,

Currently I use older Mustad 94840s for most of my standard dries, and Mustad 94831s for long flies like hoppers and hex dries. I use Mustad 9672s for stonefly dries, just because I got started tying them that way many years ago. If I had it to do over, I would tie the stones on 94831s too.

If limited to only one hook I probably would choose old Mustad 94840s. (I have quite a few of them, but not in really large sizes.)

The first problem with the old Mustads is current availablity, you can only pick them up here and there on sites like Ebay. I know they are available to at least size #4 and on the small end to smaller sizes than I plan ever to use.

The second problem with the 94840s, or newer R-50s is length. They are too short, in my views, for optimal tying of long dries like hoppers and stoneflies. Still, if only one choice it would be 94840s.

However, given the availablity problems, I would probably go with Mustad R-50s if I were to start over.

Regards,

Gandolf