Good stuff as usual. I notice that your slick trick of the parachute loop comes into play.
But enough of my babbling, the question at hand! You mentioned “cranking” the hook. Is this a manual bending of the hook on the order of bending the shank of a hook for a bendback? Or is this a positioning of a special hook in the vise?
Hi, Robin,
cranking as referred to in this context is bending the hook about a quarter way back from the eye.
The third shot, tho’ it is out of focus, tries to show this bend/offset in the shank.
In this case the bend is sideways to the plane of the bend.
This helps the fly lay low in the surface film and makes it more easily absorbed.
It hooks better this way too.
The hook must not be bent over a square edge, use your fingernail or a round faced jeweller’s pliers as the pivot. Never try to crank any hook on a forged area.
Lastly, always bend hooks cold, heat will destroy the temper.
Hope that is what you asked for,
Roy
My take is that if you look at the third image you can see that the hook has been bent to the side as opposed to the vertical bend put in a bendback hook.
days later…
Yup Warmouth, Robin has it cornered.
The hook is bent twenty degrees about an eighth of an inch ( three millimeters) back from the eye on a L/S #16. The bend is to the nearside,i.e. towards you with the hook in the normal vertical vice hold.
This helps aerodynamics, floating profile and keeps the point away from the wing on the strike.
The finished fly is slightly spoon shaped!
Concave on the upper side.
