Scott, As one not familiar with steelhead hooks I am curious, they look to be very strong of a wire of substantial diameter in the same range as the wire used for plastic worm hooks used for bass fishing. What is the purpose of using an upturned eye in this case it would appear a down turned or straight eye would aid in tying the fly on to the tippet.
Did a little research on that - apparently, the up-eye design allowed for optimal leader-to-hookshank alignment when using the Turle or double Turle knot to tie the fly to tippet; down-eye works, too. Straight-shanks don’t allow this and can cause the fly to twist at an angle during casting, preventing the fly from being presented properly.
I wish to goodness you’d be Kinder to that Thumb, seems like that would be an awful handicap when tying to tie . . . mine begins to Throb every time a see the pictures of yours . . . !
A minor hammer blow; don’t even think I used many words that couldn’t be repeated here when I did it. Narrowed the time down to the last week in Oct, based on before/after pics from some SBSs. Figure it will migrate out of the nail some time in Feb.
