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There are a lot of hooks available to choose from these days. Early in your fly tying career try to get into the habit of using not only an appropriate hook for a particular purpose but also use the same hook type each time you tie a particular fly so that each time you fish a particular fly it fishes in a similar way. Whilst two hooks may look the same there will always be subtle differences in their construction. Shorter gapes, slightly longer shanks, marginally different gauge wire, barbless or not barbless  etc. etc. If you chop and change between brands of hooks you will find that flies that you have tied and look almost the same to the eye will fish differently.

If your like me and use barbless hooks or crimp your barbs down consider a hook with a longer bite. You'll be surprised how much more holding power that a long bite on a hook imparts. Also when considering hooks I like a hook with a wide gape. I think the wider gape helps convert some of those bumps into hook ups. Finally and obviously make sure that you select hooks with sharp durable points.

You could spend a lot of time to understand why hooks work for particular applications. The list below is just a small splattering of the types of hooks available but has been selected so as to help develop an understand of why different types of hooks are chosen for different purposes.

Discussion points

Holding mechanics of a hook

A	The hook is a good starting point (excuse the pun) for any fly and its important you understand the mechanics of the hook you select. Below I have identified a number of different types of hooks.

B	This particular dry fly hook has a turned down eye, bronze medium wire, slightly longer shank than many dry fly hooks, open gape, medium  bite and small chemically sharpened barb. The biggest down side for this hook is of course the bright color and the heavy wire. For a dry hook its a trad off between wire guage and keeping the fly afloat.

C	Another dry fly option which I like a little better than the first because the straight eye is less obtrusive than the turned down eye the shank is a little longer which means that it can carry more hackle, it is also lighter wire and I do like the darker finish on the hook.

D	For me this is an older fashion streamer hook. Still popular with many I see its down side as being the relatively short bite and the narrow gape.

E	This is a good example of a straight eye hook and it ticks a lot of boxes as a hook for tying longer dry fly imitations uch as hoppers . . . I would however like to see the same hook with a longer bite. This Aberdeen general purpose hook was widly used for streamer flies but was always too light for any streamer that needed a heavy keel (the bend and the bite) to keep it swimming point down.

F	This Tiemco hook has a great proportions for nymph and streamer applications including medium wire to ensure a heavy keel and good gape and bite. These days its also available in a spear point or barbless version.

G	No application in fly tying as far as I am concerned the circle hooks were developed for long lining and are designed to hold fish once they have been hooked. These hooks have tremendous hold power because of the mechanics of the design. Because of the relationship of the eye of the hook and the bend of the hook once a fish is is hooked they tend to be held well round the bend of the hook rather than on the bite and start of the bend of the hook as would be the case with a traditional straight shank hook. They are however important to fly tying because of the mechanical advantage they demonstrate.

H	Hooks like the circle hook above may well have been the inspiration behind the very popular caddis type hook.

I	This Jig hook designed for soft plastics  like the circle hooks has a mechanical advantage advantage in holding fish well round the bend rather than at the point. They are a great hook for many trout, bass and estuary fly pattens.

J	Another hook taking a small advantage of the mechanical advantage of a circle type of hook is the bass stinger type hook. This is a great option for dry flies for bass.

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