Hook Sizes

[Black-Don]

I may be wrong here but I've found fly patterns for wild Trout tend to be tied using a size ten hooks and upward i.e. 12, 14, 16 etc,.

Is it possible to regularly use eights and even larger but still catch wild Trout.

[Wildfisher]

John,

remember the first time we fished Watten?  Huge wave, really big flies. I was using an 8 on the bob at one point

[haresear]

I remember Tony Henderson, formerly of the Garvault Hotel, telling me to try size 6 Loch Ordies on the Kinbrace lochs. I humoured him and caught a shedful :shock:

I must say I wasn't happy with the damage the big hooks were doing yo those wee fish, so reverted to long shank smaller gapes.

A lot of my big ant type patterns are on long shank 8s

Alex

[Gola]

When I started fishing (40 + years ago) flies used on the loughs were definitely larger, the common rule would have been 8's and 10's with 6's not uncommon in a large wave. But over the years the sizes seem to have come down. The normal now would be 10's and 12's and for myself its probably more often 12's and 14's.

Looking back the larger flies certainly caught their fair share of trout, so given that the trout have never been told that they should ignore the bigger flies I see no reason why they shouldn't still catch. Might just try some larger patterns this year to see how they perform.

Joe.

[Black-Don]

The reason I posted the thread was because the last time I fished Lundavra, I had a bash with a Black Dart which I always tie on an 8 longshank. Trout in the Loch are only supposed to run to 3/4 lb but I hooked up with something maybe around 1 1/2 lbs.  :shock: