$37 for ONE 19/0 hook! $45 with 24" of chain attached???
And when you’re done fishing for the day you can tow your boat trailer home with your fishing tackle! I suddenly have a whole new respect for the saltwater guys!!!
I’ll never complain about hook prices again
Thats a bit extreme. The biggest I’ve bought have been 8/0 or 9/0 and they were nowhere near that price. Wonder what makes those so special.
Hi Bass Bug,
Man, that is some hook, just think about the leader that it takes to get the fly tied on that hook to turn over, and beyond that think of the size of the rooster it takes for the hackle.
Regards,
Gandolf
That’s some serious iron, 1200 lb test yahoo.
Heck with that much hook, you might as well just run the whole rooster on it like a worm!!! You know it would be cool if someone did buy one and tie a fly with it just for giggles… can anyone say wooly bugger with an attitude…!!!
Steve
Naw,
Little bitty hook like that…that’s just right for a Texas Royal Coachman Dry!
I’ve done some ‘fun larger than reality’ flies for framing as decorations in some rental cabins and the like, but 10/0 was as big as I could find then, and they were only a dollar or two apiece…5/0 Adams looks kind of cool, and a 10/0 Mickey Finn, when described as a ‘delicate fly for the spring creeks’, is a real hoot…
Buddy
I have a box of 100, 12/0 hooks I would sure love to get rid of and a lot less than those prices. LOL!
I have a popper that I tied on a 14/0 hook. I’ll try to post a few pictures when I get home…
Brad
I bought some 6/0 hooks with hopes of using them to do knot tying demos. There are not as large I would would really like to have for that purpose. While not into buying a $37 hook which would be overkill, I very well might consider a one of of 14 or 15/0. I did find some 8/0 hooks recently on sale but they wanted you to buy 100 and I knew that I would never use them for anything but a tying demo and they still were not as large of a hook as I would like to have. One big hook and some old fly line and knot tying demos are spiced up some for the kids. File the point dull of course. I always imagined talking to little Johny’s Mommy about how he had a 12/0 hook through his forearm and how I had to drive him to the emergency room at 95 mph. Still I will have a couple of these big hooks for the collection one day.
Somewhere amongst my ‘stored’ worldly possessions, I have three such hooks (19/0) that I kept as souvenirs from my days as a marine biologist for the state, back in the mid-late 1950’s. They were hand-forged and came complete with either 3 or 4 feet of chain leader with a bull-snap attached. We used them for sharks. The line used was 3/8 inch hard-laid manilla rope with a thimble braided into one end. We ‘hand-line’ fished them. Sharks always followed the boat to feed on the by-catch from our trawling samples. We would put a fish or two on the hook and throw it overboard whenever we saw a shark near the boat and ‘hang-on’! Once hooked, the line would be run through a snatch-block hanging from the rigging and then a couple of loops of line would be wrapped around the cathead on the winch and tension would then be applied to the standing end of the line. You can rest assured that the winch is a very satisfactory single-action saltwater reel with an outstanding drag system for this type of fishing!
You are probably wondering ‘why were they doing this’! Members of the fish family Sciaenidae (trout, redfish, croaker, black drum, etc.) frequently have the larval stage of a tapeworm in their flesh making them unacceptable in the commercial market that existed at the time. Black drum are the most frequently affected species, with speckled trout and redfish right behind them. Given the importance of these three species to the, then, commercial, as well as the sport, fishery, we were trying to establish the definitive host (adult worm host) for this particular tapeworm. We were able to ascertain that the adult is found in the gut of sharks, as suspected.
I have long threatened to get an old-fashioned cotton mop, remove the handle from it, and attach the mop behind the eye of the hook in the fashion of a “Hootie”, which was THE fly for Spanish Mackeral in that area of the coast at that time. I have not followed through for lack of a place in my tying area to display it. A hook that is close to 12 inches long, with a 3-foot chain leader, and 3-inch bull-snap ( a heavy duty swivel snap) does require quite a bit of room to properly display.
The Hootie was nothing more than white nylon cord (several strands, doubled around the tying thread and tied to the hook behind the eye, and tied off. The strands extended just past the hook bend, and were teased apart with a coarse comb, leaving just a thread skirt around the hook. They were deadly on schooling Spanish Mackeral when trolled behind the boat.
Given the complete assembly, $45.00 does not seem unreasonable for such a hook. That is peanuts when compared to the price of the " rod, reel, and line" required to fish it.
Frank
I actually tie flies on these hooks as collector’s items. I have a welder re-shape them, then I sand and smooth them, and then get them brass or nickle-plated before I tie the fly.
Just a few…
Wow, Don…those are some VERY creative flies! Its crazy when you consider just one of those big flies has materials that would be practically a “lifetime supply” for the regular patterns! Amazing!
This photo needs something in it for perspective like a dollar bill. It’s really hard to get a sense of size in this photo since there is nothing to judge it by.
Love the big flies Don01, super cool.
There IS a dollar in the picture, Rick! Its just REALLY SMALL! If you zoom WAY in there is a greenish-colored pixel somewhere… LOL
It looks like the pic was taken with hook lying on a hardwood floor. Judging by the wood grain and assuming the flooring boards are standard 2.5" width…THAT HOOK IS HUGE!!!
Hey don01 how much are one of those?
Don01;
The hooks I have have a bull-snap instead of just a swivel at the end of the chain. Will have to find mine and take photos. Maybe this weekend.
Cheers
Don01, those big flies are beautiful ! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.
Ed
