US Hook sizes?

[mickporter]

Are hook sizes In the US different than here in the UK?

I read about people tying on size 22's or even size 26's. They must be minute. I have some size 22 hooks I use for catching roach or rudd. But I have to get my grandson to tie them on the line for me they are so small. I could not imagine tying a fly on them. I doubt if there will be room. I am assuming your hooks are bigger than ours.......... unless you tell me otherwise.

[AlanB]

They are the same! Its the Reditch scale if I'm not mistaken. One solution to not being able to tie the flies on at the river is to tie them onto a length of tippet at home and tie a loop to the other end. Then you can just loop to loop them onto the leader when you need them.

The smallest of flies are tied on Mustad size 32 hooks, unfortunately no longer available, They are a bit on the small side! It is possible to tie flies on them though.

Cheers,
A.

[sandfly]

there have been a few guys over the years making a size 42 hook.. I can't imagine that one. I have done some 32's in the past though and have a friend who ties a size 28 royal wulff dry..

[rainbowchaser]

The standard dry fly hook here is usually based on the Mustad 94840 which was a one times long shank hook. That means that most dry fly hooks are a little bigger than the redditch scale. I have read in the past that this has caused Americans tying flies for use in Great Britain to find that their flies were the wrong size when they used charts based on Partridge hooks. I'm not speaking from personal experience and I can't remember where I read it so take this with a grain of salt.