What does someone in a design or sales office, who may or may not fish, know about what kind of hook I want to use for what kind of fly? Then why should I let him tell me? Ignore it.

The hook makers are missing out on what would be a simple system for producing a range of hooks. To the point where the hooks offered by most makers are just a hodgepodge of sizes and shapes. 99% Of all the flies I tie could be covered with a simple system. Three gauges of wire. Light, Medium and heavy. First design the standard straight shank hook. Then do it in 2x, 4x, and 6x long shank, 2x and 4x short. That's 18 hook variations per size.

Then the harder part is curved shank hooks. Someone once said to me "How do you measure a curved hook shank in a way that relates to consistant sizing with straight shank hooks?" Well it isn't all that difficult. What you need is a piece of graph paper. Draw two lines (X-X & Y-Y axis for those of a mathematical bent). Put a pin in the paper at the point the lines cross (Origin). Hook the hook around the pin so the point the touches the X line. Find the horizontal line that crosses the hook shank behind the eye. Count the squares from behind the eye to where the hook shank crosses that line. Then count up to the top of the bend from the line. This gives you shank length and displacement, the gap is from that line to the point.

Now you have a system to compare the size of curved hooks to straight hooks. Standard, short and long in each gauge and you have a more complete range of hooks than any maker provides. It will also be more consistent in sizing, and less insulting in description.

Unfortunately, organising fly fishermen is like herding cats. Otherwise we could make a start by insisting that all hook packages carry that sizing information. Then we would have a standard by which to compare hooks from different makers. It is simple we just need to not buy hooks that don't have this standard sizing information. Most makers don't even have consistent sizing across their own range of hooks. Thats not asking anyone to change the hooks, just to measure them in a standard way.

That leads to another question. Why would I trust someone, who can't even consistently size the hooks they produce, to tell me what to use them for?

Cheers,
A.