I spent all afternoon reworking my fly tying area in the basement, and came across a box of 1,000 Mustad 93553 hooks in size 2, nickle finish with Turned Up Eye. I think they came from one of the fly fishing estates I purchased over the last 5 years. If I still bait fished for walleye these would be great hooks for “lipping” minnows on a drift, but I’m at a loss for what to use them for, mainly because of the nickle finish. I’m guessing these would be good for salt patterns.
All of the hooks I use now have a bronzed or black finish on them, so nickle is new for me when it comes to fly tying. Any ideas on what I might tie on them would be helpful, and I’d also be open to swapping them for something useful (as if I need more fly tying STUFF). All offers will be considered.
I’ve seen it printed somewhere that using a nickled hook made for a ‘reflective’ camoflage on baitfish patterns (maybe from Dave Whitlock-he uses a nickled hook on his sheep shad patterns). The ‘theory’ is that the hook ‘reflects’ what’s around it, effectively ‘hiding’ it.
In any event, I beleive that your hook is a turned up eye ‘beak’ style hook. Should work well for baitfish patterns like the deceiver, spun deer hair/foam stuff, and just about any pattern that doesn’t require a long shank to tie it to.
Thanks for your input. Since I’m not familiar with “beak” style hooks, here’s a picture of the hook. There’s not much shank for tying, but there’s a good hook gap at 13/32 from the botton of the shank to the hook point. Also, the point is offset almost 1/8" as you can tell by the shadow.
