reusing hooks

All about flies Fly Tying
1

I read the Bob Bose Article this week on whats in your vest.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/bobboese/bobboese20090824.php

I then of course had to go out get my pack and list what was in it on another thread.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=30520&highlight=vest

While doing so I realized how poorly tied and ragged some of my flies were, So I spent an hour or so organizing and throwing the bad ones into a box. the good part is now I have room for some better tied flies, the bad part is I am too cheap to throw away good hooks so I am busily cutting old flies off of hooks and getting ready to reuse them. The fact that my son liberally uses superglue for head cement doesn’t help with the deconstruction.

Any one else cut off and re-use hooks?

Eric

2

I sure do Eric. I guess I am a little (lot) cheap as well. It pains me to throw out anything to do with tying.

3

I often retie a damaged fly on the same hook. I like to fish crow beetles despite their lack of durability. I have some hooks that have had that pattern tied on them several times.

4

I reuse mine all the time. It will save you tying time when you tie because you will have hooks that already have the lead wire wrapped on the hook shank or beads already on the hook. I use my Power Zap tool and just burn a straight line down the top of the hook through the fly body and then just remove the material. Saves time zapping the material off instead of trying to cut it off.

5

grab that hook with yer hemos and set the fly on fire. much quicker and safer than taking a razor to them.

6

Not me. My time is valuable, would have to be able to clean two or three hooks a minute to break even in that regard.

Not that I throw the old ones away. No, somewhere in here is a big hairball of dead flies, rusty flies, bent flies, broken flies…

7

I religously reuse my hooks, I’ too am tight. I hav two kids though and they are fly destroying machines.

Steve

8

I reuse hooks if they haven’t been bent or if they are not corroded in any way. Use beads over often too. I find that the most expensive part of my fly patterns are the tungstun beads and the hooks. Even a silver grade Whiting cape is cheap per fly compared to the hook and bead.

9

I reuse hooks. Some of the saltwater fish really chew up patterns and some of the expensive hooks like Owner and Gamakatsu are hard to just toss out. I reuse cheaper hooks too.

10

I definitely re-use the hooks from beat-up flies. I have run into the problem of tying on a hook that was re-used too often and just wouldn’t catch fish anymore, but I try to convince myself it was worth the practice in tying flies :slight_smile:

Greg

11

does this weaken the hook?

Thanks
Brannon

12

Good thinking from all but if the flies have been used don’t forget to test their sharpness on your fingernail.

13

Does anybody have an answer to bspitt’s question about burning off material weakening the hook?
Coughlin

14

I imagine if you used a sufficiently hot flame, it would be a problem but we regularly heat hooks with butane lighters to melt beads for egg patterns and we’ve never had a problem. Fumes from burning certain synthetic materials probably should be a concern.

Personally, I used an Xacto knife or an Olfa snap blade knife when I thought this was worth doing. I have long since given up the practice because time spent cutting up flies could be better spent tying new ones. Flies I do not care for go into donation boxes, and destroyed flies are either discarded or put in a place of honor. YMMV.

15

That was my thinking originally, but then I realized that nobody wants to pay for the time I spend watching TV or just hiding in the Man Room, so really each hook represents a small net gain, no matter how slow the process is. :wink:

I re-use them all the time, but I find weighted nymphs to be the worse to salvage.

16

A 50/50 bleach/water soultion is commonly used for stripping the barbs off hackle quills for quill bodies(then you can dye them, but thats another thread topic). A stronger bleach ratio (if not just straight bleach) will disolve most of the natural fibers on flies much faster. More bleach and leaving soak longer will also make the quills brittle (a concern when trying to just strip for the quills), but will porbably help make them cut away easier.

Burning with fire should not affect the hook as long as your just pasing through a flame (like an alcohol lamp etc.) for a second or two. However filling a coffee can with a handful of flies and a shot of lighter fluid (or god forbid gasoline) probably WILL get the hooks hot enough to weaken the hook, and is also very dangerous.

17

Bug, do you speak from personal experience? Possibly lack of eyebrows afterwards? S

Seriously, if I spent all night here carving up dead flies, I would end up with a pile of random hooks that might cost me ten bucks new. Considering the thousands of dollars I spend on gas and gear and stuff every year, it aint worth it.

I will gladly donate the dead fly ball to a worthy cause, if someone wants to send me their reasons why I should give them the dead fly ball, along with $5 in US currency or coin. After receiving all the entries, I will select the person who gets to figure out how to pick flies out to clean off the hooks, and send it to them.

18

I have a plastic bin that has “Lessons Learned” on it. I like to be reminded of my mistakes so that I don’t repeat them…
The beat up flies I have are saved for now, and when I wear out a hat I’m wearing now, I’m going to start filling up my beat up hat with my beat up flies. That hat will hang above my tying desk…

19

I did the bleach trick and stripped some quills, but never messed with stripped down old flies.

I say get a brimmed hat with a fleece band, and proudly wear the old flies!

20

Quivira, you put that hat up, some night your wife will run into it while half asleep and kill it with your 12 gauge in self-defense.