The recent posts by tying newbies leads me to ask a question I asked once before. Fly recipes specify certain hooks and, if you follow the recipes, you will end up owning a lot of different hook packages. Do any of you cut down on your hook inventories by buying only a few hooks types and sizes and then substituting them in the official recipes? If so, how?
(FWIW, I currently own at least 40 packages of hooks in different models and sizes and I know this is silly.)
To down size my hook inventory I only buy one style of saltwater hook That I tie clousers on. Also it was hard to tell my wife that I needed saltwater hooks since I live in Kansas. Other than that I would like to see ideas on how to not buy so many sizes and styles.
I solve that problem by not reading recipes, and just tying flies.
I use a handful of hook styles, in a handful of sizes. I do have my preferences, but since I tie flies to fish, I don’t worry too much about the “proper” hook.
I saw these magnetic hook boxes at my local shop and got one.
Works really good for me. I just pick my hook with my tweezers and clamp it up and tye.
(Except for the two #28 that shot away. Still haven’t found them. :shock: )
I’d like to get a few more of them because they are really handy! 
I can turn it upside down and narry a hook moves from the magnetic white bottom of it. (not even the bigger hooks). And the stickers came with it.
Old Frat. I agree that if you follow the recipe you can end up ith a bunch of different hook packages. But I don’t think the recipes are written in stone and must be followed exactly. If you try to stick to hooks from one manufacturer rather than several this can cut down on your inventory. For instance Hook & Hackle has a chart that shows what hooks are about the same between manufacturers. I try to stick with Mustad because of the price. In addition you can substitute hooks within the same manufacturer. For instance Mustad made a 3399A, a 3399 and a 3366. When I see a recipe calling for one of those 3 hooks I just use a 3366. So far the fish haven’t seemed to mind.
Tim
Jo-Ann Fabrics carries a box with 14 individually opening compartments in two sizes for dirt cheap, especially if you watch their sales. Just counted 16 of those with virtually all compartments full. That is just trout fly hooks.
There are several other boxes for saltwater and a couple big boxes with salmon fly hooks… And we still manage to end up with assorted boxes kicking around! There is no end to it and giving up right now is the only thing you can do.
Welcome to the Dark Side!
art
inventory schminventory!!
i too have way too many hooks that i’ll probably never ever use, but its an addiction. what if i want to tie that pattern and dont have the hook called for.
probably time to do some weeding of weak ones!:D:D
I don’t worry so much about hook style, though I’m a sucker for a fly with the upturned eye. Anyway, I just figure on the size I need and then see what I have. I keep my dry fly hooks in pill containers, the one that has the days of the week on it. Nymphs and streamers stay in the packages they came in.
Coughlin
In reality, a standard Mustad dry fly hook, can be used to tie any fly. Weight it for nymphs if need be. Some 4x long for streamers. The rest of them are more for fishermen than the fish. That being said, I have way to many hooks on my bench;)
What DG said.
To elaborate, I’ve got an inventory based on several types of hooks from one company ( Dai-Riki ). Dry fly hooks, scud / emerger hooks, streamer hooks, hopper hooks, etc. And the variety of sizes in each of those types of hooks to tie what I want to fish.
Those hooks will accomodate virturally any pattern / recipe that I run across that I want to try. Maybe its not a problem because I don’t find many new patterns that strike me as better than the ones I’ve been using.
John
There are online sources that give you a hook crossrefererence. There is also a book “Hooks for the Fly”, by William Schmidt, that I believe is the very best source–of course now with Mustad’s new numbering–it will need updating.
I like the 10 compartment hook boxes. One will hold straight shank dry fly hooks from #22 standard to #6-2XL. Another holds a similar range of wet fly hooks. Those 2 boxes probably could tie 90% of all trout flies.
Of course then there’s heavy and light wire scud hooks, emerger hooks, Steelhead/Salmon hooks, egg hooks, popper hooks… So I guess it never ends.
Norm,
You need to attend FTA.
“Hi, I’m Norm, and I am a fly tyer. To date I have way too bad of an addiction to supplies…”
Lord have mercy, thatza a lotta chit you have! 
LOL!
[FONT=Verdana]and here I was afraid Norm’s interest had lapsed, there must be two or three empty compartments in the boxes in second row, and the 24-compartment box at bottom-center is so vacant as to hardly be called for at all . . . ! !
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] ? smc ?
[/FONT]
i adapt all fly recipes i tie, and now they all begin:
a dry fly hook, size (whatever)
a scud hook, size…
a nymph hook, size…
an 8X streamer hook …
and so on. since i switched to that system, i have actually emptied some of my gazillion hook packages–and not replaced them. Oh, the Pain!!:shock:
one of my recipes (self-adapted) demands a certain Gamakatsu hook, (really, nothing else works as well!) but i’ve fudged the others for ages.
I don’t worry about what particular hook they say they use. I pick out a hook near the same size and use that. I don’t even use the same color thread they call for most of the time.
I have dry fly, steream, nymph and caddis hooks.
Rick
its a work in progress… :D;)
You can send the culls to me!! I’ll give those poor weak ones a home…poor little dears.
I have paired my hooks down. I buy dry fly hooks and tie dries, wets, and nymphs on them (that eliminates nymph hooks). I buy emerger hooks and tie emergers, eggs, and scuds on them (that eliminates scud and egg hooks). I buy the curved caddis/hopper hooks and tie stimulators and hoppers on them. Then I buy one type of saltwater hook and one streamer hook (for all streamers and woolly buggers). That leaves me with only five types of hooks. I still buy them in four or five sizes each, but it makes it really easy to just buy boxes of 100 and cover lots patterns. I have to use more weight this way, but that is much better than having my wife see a hook collection like Norm’s. 
Like a lot of folks on this board, I have traveled the road Old Frat described: buy the hook called for in the recipe.
About 5 or more years ago, I wised up and gave away all of my old hooks of many styles and decided to consolidate. While I still use more than a few styles of hook and many different sizes of the same style; I have made my life a lot simpler by sticking to certain standard hooks. Everything I need, in every size I need, fits in three Umpqua compartment boxes.
I chose a specific brand and model of standard hook styles, (dry, wet, streamer) and now use them for every fly I tie. I still allow myself the luxury of using specific hooks for specific classic fly types so I have certain special hooks I use for things like classic wets, Rangeley streamers and spiders.
The hardest part of consolidating is sticking to your guns when your favorite shop is out of what you decided will be your standard hook type. For that reason I only buy in quantities of 100 and reorder when I’m use about 50% of my inventory.