Hello Joe

Allow me to jump in and answer your question. I'm the guy here in North America responsible for all the Mustad and Partridge fly hooks and actually worked with my counterpart Geir Sivertzen (Dr. Hook) to develop the entire Signature range.

All the fly hooks in the "classic" range like the 3906B, 79580, 94840 and so on have what we refer to as a "cut point" (not a cutting point). A cut point is simply a hook point that is formed when the wire is cut at an angle. This gives you a point with decent sharpness and a very good price.

The Signature Series hooks offer much more than the classic hooks. Because of the increased production costs they are more expensive than the classics. So just what is different about them you ask . . .

1) The Signature series are the only proportionally correct fly hooks on the market . . . PERIOD . This is to say that as you go up or down in size the wire diameter, hook gap and tying length increase, or decrease proportionally. So, if you love the size 22 in say the R50 model, you will like the size 2 just as much because it has the exact same proportions. No other hook company out there is offering this. Why is this important? Well, lets say that you are tying a small nymph on a size 16 hook. The hook performs well for you and you also want to tie the same pattern on a size 8 hook to imitate a Stonefly. Well, with most hooks out there, you may go to the size 8 and find that the tying length is not the same and now your fly is short and stubby or the gap is too narrow. The proper proportions on the Signature series eliminate that issue.

2) All the hook points within the Signature series are chemically sharpened premium points with micro-barbs. We utilize different point processes to guarantee that our points are very sharp and are more durable from one end of the size range to the other, compared to our competition. They offer the most durable premium points on the market today.

3) Quality control is a major issue with this range. While we certainly do our best to offer excellent quality classic hooks, the Signature series are produced on the latest equipment ensuring perfect eye closures and exceptional quality.

4) While the Signature hooks are certainly more expensive than our classic range, we are competitively priced compared to our premium competition and in cases like our stainless hooks, we are far more reasonably priced.

Just a few general comments on the hooks
As far as wire quality goes, we use the same high quality wire to produce all of our fly hooks. Mustad is the only hook manufacturer on the planet with our own wire drawing mill. This means that we control the quality of our hook wire from the very start unlike our competition who must buy wire from outside sources which can cause quality issues. If we have wire that just does not meet out standards, it ends up on our paperclip machines ??. Did you know that we are the only hook supplier out there that produces 100% of the hooks we sell? It??s true and that allows us to offer a quality product from one end of the range to the other. Ever take a look at some of the other hooks out there and see that there might be 3 different shades of bronze within one model number of a hook? This is because they are buying the hooks from different suppliers. While this is not necessarily a major issue, it certainly opens the door to quality issues. No, not all hooks produced are chemically sharpened. This does add cost to the process and therefore only premium hooks are typically chemically sharpened (actually called chemical polishing).

It is true that we have a new catalog that shows every hook we offer in actual size, Mustad and Partridge included. There are lots of great fly hooks out there that are not sold as such so it pays to look at the full range of products. Most every hook can be viewed on the Mustad website and by following the easy directions, you can print pages in actual size off the website.

Hope this helps answer your questions but let me know if there is anything else you want to know.

Now it's time to pack my bags and hop a plane to the Denver Fly Show this afternoon. Nope , no fishing for me on this trip.


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Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!