Anyone use or have an opinion about Kamasan fly hook’s? They seem to be a favorite of Davie McPhail who’s work I really admire. The B160 he use’s on some pattern’s that’s a short shank , wide gape seem’s very nice and logical in smaller size’s. What do you think? Thanks
The Kamasan is a very well known hook brand here in the UK. It has been around for many years.
The short shank wet fly hook is a popular style for many patterns. I can’t say I’ve seen it much
on North American patterns. What fly was Davie dressing?
I’ve seen him tie a dry and an emerger on the B160. He says the short shank allows a short body without giving up the gape. As in the #16 has the gape of a #14.
[b]Well! It sounds like Davie has answered why he uses the short shank. I have not seen this
hook pattern for sale on American suppliers sites. I’ll give you a UK site that sells Kamasan.
They are usually very reasonably priced. Be back in a minute.
Here they are on Glasgow Angling,
[/b]http://www.fishingmegastore.com/kamasan-hooks_598.html
Thanks for the tip Donald. Do you use them on any of your pattern’s?
I have used the Kamasan, but not the short shank. I’m sure I have them in my hook
collection, but I have not used them for a while, I’ll have to look them out now.
Kamasan and Daiichi are the same.
How are they the same? I haven’t seen much of the two compared on hook chart’s.
The Kamasan are marketed in Europe and the Daiichi are marketed here in the States. This has been discussed on other boards many times.
I have a Hook section on my web-site
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page204.html
This is a precis of some of the info:-
Drennan Super Specialist Hooks - This is the heavier hook.
Drennan Carbon Specimen Hooks - My preferred hook for Spiders.
These two hooks are marketed in the UK by Drennan under their name,
but are made for them by Daiichi.
Many US anglers use
Daiichi 1640 Multi-Use Dry Fly -
Which is the same as the Carbon Specimen.
Daiichi 1110 Wide-Gape Dry Fly Hook.
Model perfect bend, oversized straight-eye, 1X-fine wire, “mini-barb”, bronze.
This hook is marketed by Orvis under their own name.
I have no direct evidence, but it seems quite likely that the
Kamasan hooks are actually made for the European market
by Daiichi. Some of the patterns are the same, but there are hooks
in the Kamasan catalogue that are obviously quite specific for the
UK market.
Hey Donald and All: What hook style would you recommend for dressing traditional wet flies be they Daiichi, Kamasan, or others etc.? I used to use the Mustad 3399 but I can’t get them anymore.
Thanks for all the helpful info Donald. I’m most interested in hooks such as the B160. I guess that’s one style thats for the European market because I have not found anything that seem’s to compare to it in other brand’s.
Narcodog , thank’s also. I’ll do a little digging and see if I can find the old thread’s.
Lastchance
Don’t know what size your looking for but if you go to Capt Hooks http://www.captainhookswarehouse.com/index.cfm?page=products&view=1 they have the 3399 in size 16, 4 and 1/0
Then it’s a 14 with a short shank, not a 16 with a big gap… I wish to God the hook makers would adopt a standard regarding hook sizes. Mustad has done BY FAR the best with their signature hooks, it all makes sense once you take 93 seconds to understand the code. IMO (which is worth what…?) the hook SIZE should always refer to the gap-- shank length is irrelevant to the number size.
I thought you might like to see a traditional Scottish fly on a short shank hook.
Huh? While I might agree that the hook model numbers are hard to keep track of across vendors, not sure why this would make life any easier. Problem is there really isn’t an ideal “standard hook” nor a standard proportion out there from which all other hook sizes could be derived from, and even if there were, why would that necessarily simplify matters (imagine a 1.5XL, 1.75XH hook). Each manufacturer starts with some sort of base line but there are going to be variations in proportions not only across styles, but within styles as well.
Best way of dealing with the confusion is to stick with a single vendor, focus on as few hooks styles as you can cope with, and ignore everyone else. For the rest of, I don’t mind dealing with subtle variations across vendors if they produce a style or type of hook that I both like and catches fish…and yes, the first criteria is more important to me than the second, although I require BOTH criteria to be met.
Very nice pattern Donald. It’s those types of pattern’s that got me interested in the hook’s. They really seem to better fit those type of wet fly pattern’s.
Great fly there Donald. The hook is sweet too.
Here is a little of the KeHe’s history, from the 1930’s.
Mr Kemp and Mr Heddle were fishing in one of the Orkney lochs and noticed
that some small fat brown bees were being taken by the trout. The lochs usually
have a anglers rest hut and they may have gone back and dressed this fly asap.
It was so successful, it became a classic.
This is used as a loch fly, fished in the traditional loch style,
in a cast of three, from a drifting boat.
Nice! I buy up many Kamasan I come across since I believe their hooks are great and not one problem with them. I prefer the wet hooks with an upturned eye.