How do you tell if your fly hook needs sharpening and how do you sharpen it?
On a recent outing I found that I was missing strikes, I would try and set the hook but they always shook off… not a complete miss but a strike and 1 second later off. So I started thinking that maybe my fly was dull; it was a used fly, don’t recall how many times I had used it. So I switched to the exact same fly but brand new and bang I was hooking up. So was my hook dull? I can’t tell any difference.
Doug
Drag it across your thumb nail, if it sticks it’s sharp and if it doesn’t it’s dull.
Jack is bang on, drag it lightly over your nail. If it needs sharpening just a few strokes with a pocket diamond file is usually all it needs.
All the best.
Mike
Jack, Mike
Perfect! Thanks for the tip.
Doug
That’s a great tip. I’ll have to try it out, as I have been losing a bunch of fish to jump-offs. Could also be that I am using barbless, but that would make a sharp hook even more important.
Hi Doug,
I fish small streams, and often they could be rocky. It is not unusual to hit the fly hook point on a rock. When that happens I try to sharpen it right away, and have found that prompt sharpening of the hook help with getting hook ups.
Regards,
Gandolf
Hi Gandolf,
I love small streams. The feedback I’m getting is you must keep your fly sharp. I’ve not carried a stone/file to sharpen but I will now. It’s funny that I had never thought about it before but it makes so much sense.
Doug
I think the sharpness of the hook is important as I have been fishing barbless for several years now.
Loose some,but no more than with barbed hooks.
Rick
Sharpening your hook is all well and good, but if you don’t do it correctly you’ll do more harm than good
This is a pretty good tutorial on sharpening your hook points.
Well that’s interesting. Like a lot of things in the FF world, I’d heard different advice in the past. Instead of dragging the file across the point toward the point, I’d always heard you drag the file toward the bend, which is the opposite direction from what this site advocates. 
Barbless doesn’t matter. you won’t lose anymore fishing with or without barbs, and will probably stick more with a light set when fishing barbless than with barbs.
Read any site you prefer, they will all recommend sharpening toward the point.
It’s as Dudley stated, if you’re not sharpening the hook point correctly it’s just a waste of time.
I’m not trying to start a great debate but I take exception to the direction to stroke a stone over a hook point. I would like someone to tell me why the direction of stoning should not be back over the hook point stroking toward the bend of the hook. This is the way I was taught years ago by some toolmakers. Their explanation was that doing it this way would push any micro sized burrs on the point back away from the point and scrape them off. Stroking the stone or file towards the hook point would only roll the little burr around to the other side of the point. This always seemed logical to me.
Having spent many years hanging around Tool Shops I have to agree with Ray. Sharpining a Knife calls for stroking the stone into the edge and if done properly will roll a burr on the off side which can then be honed off. Sharpining in the other direction will only roll the “Burr” from one side to the other. Anyway I’ve never had a problem sharping my hooks toward the bend!
The issue with burrs is exactly what I recall being cited when hearing that advice (sharpening toward the bend) along with, if I recall correctly, the fact that you can create a very fragile point by sharpening in the other direction.
I wasn’t trying to start anything either, though bobbyg’s response would suggest I may have unintentionally created a different kind of burr in making this particular “point”. All I meant was that this just seems to be another one of those issues where you can find conflicting advice. Nothing worth getting too uptight about I suspect, as either is no doubt better than not sharpening at all.
Not to pile on, but this exchange drove me out onto Google to see if I was remembering incorrectly.
Here are two guys who know a lot more than I do on the subject:
Bob Clouser (brief video) - http://fcff.org/images/Learn%20Images/ClouserHookSharpenaddress.wmv
Lefty Kreh (book excerpt, see page 42) - http://books.google.com/books?id=j8c3Sklaz4AC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=lefty+kreh+sharpening+hooks&source=bl&ots=QGADaVwse3&sig=457L7nMzij5F1pAfgvgeh5UGkHg&hl=en&ei=jkWpTL_gMIa8lQfIz8SqDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false
Sorry if I created that impression John.
Please sharpen your hooks the way you feel to be the best.
No worries bobbyg, and no ill intent here either. Here’s hoping we both find fish on the hooks no matter how we sharpened them!
I have a hook file on my lanyard along with my nippers. Two tools that are always with me. I check hook sharpness often while fishing. Catching steelhead is hard enough without losing one because of a dull hook.