Under the “Why didn’t I think of this earlier?” catagory:
Thin strip of steel 2.5 - 3 feet long, bent into an “L” shape (cross piece is ~4" long)
Line the bottom side of the cross piece with 4-5 or more neodymium magnets 0.5" diameter
Voila!! Dropped hook retrieval device.
Use the silver magnets (think: landing net magnet), the neodymium ones, as they are stronger. Buy them at craft stores, e.g. Michael’s. Sweep the floor for those size 22s you dropped.
I picked up a little magnet tool at the auto parts store for just that purpose. It’s has a heavy duty neodymium magnet mounted on a telescoping handle. Great for sweeping the carpet for that size 20 hook you just dropped…
I use a much larger “mechanic” type parts retreiver with a 2 1/2 inch magnet. I think it cost me ~$3 at Northern Tool and Equipment. The thing that scares me the most is the number of times I “sweep” the floor looking for a hook I just dropped only to find one or two other hooks that were down there waiting to snag one of my toes. I almost always go barefoot in the house and luckily I’ve only found one hook with my foot and then it just wedged a piece of skin between the point and shaft. One more reason I always debarb my hooks as soon as I take them out of the hook storage compartment.
Take apart an old hard drive and you’ll find a pair of very strong, slim magnets. Work great for retrieving all sorts of things. I often have one on a spool of kit string that lets me fetch things dropped in clear water (“clear” makes it easier to see what I’m trying to retrieve).
Magnets, Smagmets! Normand is right! The hands and knees search under the fly tying table is an indispensable part of the fly tying ritual just like a firm whip finish. The degree of skill required to find the offending hook or finished fly, of course, varies with the color and depth of the carpet. Finding a bare hook or even a finished midget on a dark-colored, shag carpet should be attempted only by master tyers. 8T
Just this Saturday afternoon I was on my hands and knees under the table looking for a lost size 22 midge when the cat entered the room.
Jumped on my back.
Extended Claws to make a full short-field landing.
I “tried” to jump straight up to get the cat off and hit my head under the table.
Now I have a bump on my head and can’t find all the hooks missing from the open box laying on the table that went flying when the cat jumped on me and clawed my back.
Did I tie 4 or 5 flies out of that brand-new box of 100 hooks? Did I find 96 or 95 hooks?
If that cat didn’t donate a great dubbing mix, he’d be history…where’s my ice pack?
My wife sews quite a bit. It is a common problem for sewers to loose or drop their pins or needles. They sell at sewing stores a very nice powerful magnet with a plastic handle on it. I have used my wife’s magnet several times to sweep the carpet to locate hooks I have dropped. Has worked everytime so far.
I like this one, because there are 4" of magnets. Also don’t have to bend over to find the hook (embedded in my knee when I got down on the floor) I would never find the size 22s I am tying now. Plus, I can sweep with greater surface area
I have an old Magnetic Antenna from the C.B. days & I just sweep this along the carpet. It’s plenty strong enough to pick up hooks & stuff & I don’t have to bend over ,what with the long antenna…