The Tiemco 100 in a size 8 must weigh a ton from the size of the wire, compared with the smaller sizes. What do you tie large dries on?
While the wire is heavier, there is probably also more material on the fly to float it. That said, I tie most of my bigger (>10) drys on 2XL hooks or with extended bodies or both.
Bigger dries on the Mustad C49S (relatively heavy). But the Daiichi 1160 is climbing the ranks…
I have been using hopper hooks, they are much lighter wire, but what are the drawbacks?
I like the cricket hooks from Wally’s
I’ve struggled with the same issue for matching Brown Drakes. The Brown Drakes that I’ve seen around here are about a size 6. However, tying a mayfly imiation that floats a size 6 dry fly hook is rather challenging. I ended up going with an extended body fly design on a smaller hook.
Hi All,
I tie big stonefly dries on old Mustad 9672s, but they have tons of hackle on them. Most other large dries I tie on old Mustad 94831s. The 831s are significantly lighter than the 9672s, and I think that the fly floats better using them rather than the 9672s.
Regards,
Gandolf
Like others I’ve always considered detached bodies the answer here. You can get some very light wire long shank hooks. Unfortunately this can mean you are often playing a, possibly large, fish on a light wire hook. Something that should be avoided if possible. Especially if you are going to return the fish. A detached body lets you use a heavier wire hook and still have less steel in the fly than a light wire long shank hook.
Some people have considered that detached bodies can cause the hook to be knocked away from the fish as it rises. I have never seen evidence for this. If you are fishing a hatch of large flies then the fish are used to grabbing a large fly. Fool them and they will rise in the same way, engulfing the fly. If your fly is so much larger than the natural… well why would it be?
Cheers,
A.
I’ve tied them with extended bodies on standard dry fly hooks
Mustad 94840 #10
and on 2xl dry fly hooks
Tiemco 5212 #10
I haven’t tried extended foam bodies for big mayflies yet (this is a hopper in progress) but it would be pretty simple to adapt it to a mayfly
For foam bodied stoneflies and big attractors, using a heavier nymph hook sometimes helps me get the fly to land upright
Tiemco 200 #4
Tiemco 5263 #6
Regards,
Scott
Great ideas, I’ll try them all.
I have some 94840’s in a size 6 I use for yellow drakes. Only have a few less than 100 so I’m real careful with them.
Years ago I was advised to tye large flies on a hook that was 1 size smaller but 2 extra long shank. The 2 hooks that I was advised to use was the Mustad 94831 and the Daicchi 1290. That resulted in a fly with the correct length body and lighter in weight. There was a concern about the size of the gap but that never did prove to be a problem. Some of the fly patterns that were tyed on those hooks included the March Brown, Green Drake, Coffin fly and many of the other large drakes.
Allan
Allan,
I’ve never been a big fan of the 94831 in smaller sizes (#14-16) because of the gap, as you mentioned, but the larger ones work fine.
Regards,
Scott