Wide Gape Hooks

[Wildfisher]

Anyone use wide gape hooks and do you think they hold fish any better?  I notice in the Davie McPhail videos he uses them a fair bit.  For example: hooks that have size 16 shank length but a size 14 gape.

[mackiia1]

Anyone use wide gape hooks and do you think they hold fish any better?  I notice in the Davie McPhail videos he uses them a fair bit.  For example: hooks that have size 16 shank length but a size 14 gape.

I use B160 for most of my wet fly/ spider patterns - I like the short shank and wide gape - a lot of guys down here tie on a B175 but I prefer B160 as I think it gives a better profile to the fly. One of my local rivers is now barbless only so currently looking for barbless hooks similar to the B160.
Me and a friend lost a few good fish on Corrib last year while Caenis fishing and we put it down to the narrow gape of the flies we were using - this year we are going to use the same patterns but on a wider gape hook - hopefully we see a big difference
Ian

[haresear]

I like wide gapes for beadheads and for bulky bodied flies. I feel the dressing or the beadhead can hinder hooking and the wide gape helps counteract that. Whether I am right or not, I don't know and I couldn't say whether they hold fish better than a standard gape.

What I am sure of though is that I lose a lot more fish on really long shanked hooks.

Alex

[Highlander]

Wide gape has been around in various forms for many years. Good example is the Capt Hamilton range from Partridge.
Do they hold fish better, I have no idea, Some may say so & some have no opinion one way or t'other. At best subjective. I went through my Capt Hamilton period many years ago. Never noticed one way or other if the "were better" why? because I was too busy fishing to spend even if I wanted to the merits or otherwise of the shape.
Whats the best hook. I''ll tell you the ones I like.
The old Alex Martin "outpoint" style was a good hook to my mind, a concept much copied m in Salmon hooks like the Esmond Drury range  today.
For wet flies I liked the old Limerick bend but today I rely on a Sproat shape which I think is a nice compromise between the older Limerick & a standard round bend. I try to get a compromise between hooking & strength. No point in a fine wire hook that hooks OK only to straighten with minimum pressure, a problem I found with certain Tiemco hooks a while back. Like wise a reversed or sneck bend may be someones cup of tea but the few times I used them I saw no advantage one way or other.
Only hook I have really had problems with is the TMC 200R whilst looks good on a fly such as sedge or stonefly nymph is inherently a poor hooker. Likewise Long shank hook can be poor hookers if not for barb but the fact that the shank is so darn long so leverage will play a factor I reckon.
Too heavy a gauge whilst strong throws up it own set of problems.
A selection of hook styles to suit the fly type I am using, is what I strive for. There are numerous hooks out there many of which I have not tried & I dare say some of them are good so I will leave it to others to bring their thoughts to the fore.
Tight Lines

[Wildfisher]

Me and a friend lost a few good fish on Corrib last year while Caenis fishing and we put it down to the narrow gape of the flies we were using - this year we are going to use the same patterns but on a wider gape hook - hopefully we see a big difference

That's interesting Ian. These things can be difficult to quantify, but mind and tell us how it goes.

[Wildfisher]

What I am sure of though is that I lose a lot more fish on really long shanked hooks.

Me too, far more. The number of really big fish I have lost on streamers has been a bit depressing.  That's the subtext of this thread. Has losing fish got anything to do with the gape - shank length ratio?

[Wildfisher]

Do they hold fish better, I have no idea, Some may say so & some have no opinion one way or t'other. At best subjective.

That's interesting Alan. It is really  difficult to quantify these things. There are so many variables. Like Alex I can say absolutely  that I lose more fish on long shank hooks and as I said above I was wondering if it had anything to  do with the ratio of shank length to hook gape.

[haresear]

Only hook I have really had problems with is the TMC 200R whilst looks good on a fly such as sedge or stonefly nymph is inherently a poor hooker.

I hate those things. I tried flaring the point out with forceps and that helps.

Alex

[Wildfisher]

The absolute worst holding hooks (non streamer) I have used are Partridge Extreme Klinkhamer, though oddly enough  I have had quite few big fish (3 to 5 lb) on them in New Zealand and they held them well enough. It's wee fish at home that seem to drop off more. I always fish barb-lees, so perhaps that has something to  do with the weight being insufficient to get and keep a good hold. Joe had the same issues with these hooks and stopped using them.

[Suki1312]

Fulling mill have been coming out with some superb barbless hooks of late , don't ask me the code for them lol , but I've been getting mine from Lathkill and they have a short shank and wider gape . I've found I have been losing less fish or it might just be luck who knows