Up eye hooks

[oldster]

I have some up eye 14 dry fly hooks that I've had so long I've forgotten where I got them. Never tied anything with up eyes. These hooks are about 2x long and I was looking thru my stuff for longer dry 14s for some patterns. Anyone have experience fishing up eyes? Is there a hooking problem with them?

[Tig]

No problem at all. Whether or not they ride on the water differently than a down eye doesn't seem to make any difference to the fish in my experience either.

[ScottP]

I bough a bunch of Mustad 94842’s years ago; never used them much. I recently shipped them to a tyer on another forum who wanted to tie up some Leisenring/Hidy flymphs.

Regards,
Scott

[oldster]

These hooks are most likely Mustads. I've had them at least 50 years and Mustads were The only hooks You could get then. They are very light wire and longer than 94840s

[john52948]

I went thru an up eye craze in the mid sixties, couldn't tie a dry fly with out them. im sure if I look thru my hook box I will find a couple of boxes of them. they were all mustads, 2 cents each, a far cry from the 32 cent hooks of today. never noticed a hooking problem with them, if I had I probably would have attributed it to operator error.

if I get ambitious latter today, I will hunt thru my hook box and see exactly what I have.

[jcampbell]

Well, I'll have to join the club. Years ago I bought 100 Mustad 94842's #16 up eyes because of something I read back then. I think I have used 2 or 3 of them. Never fished them that I remember. I'll be glad to share my stash.

[Chuck441]

I think flies tied on up-eye hooks look pretty sexy! But hooking fish proved to be a problem. It improveved when I used any knot where the tippet exited through the front of the eye unlike, say, a clinch knot. Maybe there's a reason why almost all trout fly hooks sold are down eye.

Chuck

[oldster]

What a great service faol is! I gives us access to help from a bunch of willing people who freely share their ideas. Thanks to all you who willingly share. I'm gonna tie up some flies on these ancient hooks and see what happens.
Pat

[oldster]

Thanks to all! I'm gonna tie up some files with these ancient hooks and see how they turn out.
Pat

[john52948]

got into my hook box and found a couple of boxes of size 8, 12, and 14 mustad Viking t. up eye bronze, hooks. I bought them in the mid sixties. seems I found it easier to tie a properly proportioned dry fly on the up eyes verses the down eye. haven't got a clue as to why, and probably haven't tied a fly on that style hook since 72 or 73