I find it difficult to believe many commercial fly tying enterprises are paying for top brand hooks for their products yet many of us seem to be very picky. Seven to ten cents a hook looks good to me.
It varies from shop to shop (i.e. some still tie their own flies, but not as many as in days gone by), but considering that there are only a limited number of major fly distributors and the biggest is also a MAJOR hook distributor…draw you own conclusion. The price-per-hook, even for the premium brands, is not that large if you start buying in large enough quantities.
bear in mind they arent paying retail like you and i do nor are the buying a 25 pack like you and i do.
i used to buy 1 to 2 thousand premium hooks at a time. average cost per hook - 1 to 2 pennies.
In the Asian sweatshops where most flies are tied they buy hooks buy the thousands and most certainly do not pay retail for them.
I bought a thousand size 6 worm hooks on Ebay. That was all fine, and dandy, and cheap (12 bucks or so)…now where would you put all of them…I am running out of room. I didn’t think they would take up as much space as they did. Buying in large quantity is great if you can afford it, and if they are on sale then, all the better. Look up Gamakatsu B10 stinger hooks…in size 1-3/0…it will blow your mind. Better yet look at salmon hooks…If I had money to stock up more, I would because that stuff is only going to increase in price.
Oh, to answer the question…I don’t know what most of them use ,but most I have seen have been poor quality, dull hooks. Some are decent, but the hook is where many flies run short…especially at a certain place I shop now and then, they sell flies. That is one good thing about tying, you can use quality materials if you desire. If you just tied a few flies now and then, I would certainly go high quality. But when you experiment and make a bunch of flies, sometimes using cheaper hooks just make sense.
Thousands??? I would venture to say the sweatshops by them by the TENS of thousands per each size alone if they don’t manufacture them themselves entirely.
They buy the hooks by the pound, as for sweatshops… while I have no doubt there are some, but all most of the majors and most minor Houses have very nice faculties. Some go even further
As has been pointed out, most of the major offshore fly tying operations are not buying is small quantities. Umpqua uses Tiemco hooks, but I think they own the factory (I could be wrong here).
I once looked into buying hooks in true bulk. 100,000 or so per size. I was told that for that amount, I could save a lot buying them by weight. But I would have to sort them myself (that means untangling them from the ball they become in that kind of quantity). I’ll just assume that the larger fly tying houses have the machine that does that for them. In any event, the price was pretty low, close to a penny per hook before shipping. And that was for Tiemco hooks.
When I tied commercially, I used a variety of hooks that suited the patterns I was selling. Mustad primarily, as I could get them easily in smaller wholesale quantities (1,000s), but some Eagle Claw, Gamakatsu, and a few others.
I’ll wager that most of the locally tied flies in most fly shops are a similar blend of hooks types.
To keep from running into problems with hooks in pre tied flies, just inspect the fly before you buy. If it’s got the point, the eye is closed, and the hook seems sharp, you are probably okay.
Buddy
I have noticed name brand flies seem to have better hooks on them. The no namers made overseas were the ones I meant. Of course I am sure some with names are mostly made overseas, but their hooks seem higher quality. I rarely buy any fly at all. I always test them first to see what the hook is like. This is mainly from a particular store I see the cruddy hooks…guess I’d better not say on here. (I don’t believe they are a advertiser here at all)
Just spoke to the owner of a local shop on Saturday. He ties commercialy and said that he cannot afford to use premium hooks. I suspect this is true for most of them. Crudy hooks was primary reason why I have started to tie flies myself.
Good point. If I tie on my patio in the sumer, it’s a sweatshop.
Ed
I will allways tie how I want!
People who tie flies for a living are great that they have a job, but I want the fish on the end of my line to have taken my interpretation of whatever is food and like it!
My patterns will always be my own, and also inspired by the greatest who have made patterns in the past-DomesticIf ally!
If you don’t love the sport, then you will never create something to enhance the sport.
…and goddammmmmmmmmmm, if I don’t sincerely love my Chinese relatives. 