Old flies question.

[modocdan]

Quite some time back, I saw photos and at least one thread about flies tied on eyeless hooks. As I recall, they were snelled with catgut originally, and this catgut 'snelling' was attached to the hook shank directly, within the body of the fly. It extended out of the fly, I believe, only a couple inches, with a loop to attach the fly to the tippet. The photos showed beautifully tied flies, usually older historic and classic patterns. At the time, these eyeless hooks were becoming extremely scarce I believe. Does this ring a bell for any of y'all out there ? I'd like to revisit this method and style of flies, hopefully give it a try. Thanks to all !

Another thing just came to mind, these were fair-sized flies, as was most of the really old stuff, rods aand reels as well. As our technology advanced, we could manufacture not only eyed hooks, but increasingly smaller ones. This type of fly became obsolete as a result. Being a bone-deep lover of history and the old ways, I'm a sucker for learning and keeping alive some of these lost arts.