Varivas Barbless Hooks

[Pete]

Since I have started tying my own flies I have decided to try barbless hooks, I noticed a couple of old posts regarding these varivas hooks, can anyone recommend them??  Or would you recommend a different make of barbless.

Cheers
Pete

[Clan Ford]

Pete,

I've got a couple of boxes you can have for free :shock: - that's not a recommendation :roll:

Teimco do decent barbless hooks but I think thye have discontiuned most of them   Nothing wrong with flattening the barb on most hooks, it's what I tend to do.

Norm

[Pete]

I've got a couple of boxes you can have for free :shock: - that's not a recommendation :roll:

So you don't like them then :

I have tie a number of klinks on them and fished them for the first time on saturday.  I only found two risers both of which I hooked and had on, but both threw the hook before I got anywhere near getting the net out.  One I was not surprised at but the other I thought was definitely well hooked.  Did you have bother with them?

Maybe I should stick with de-barbing standard hooks :?

Pete

[rabbitangler]

pretty sure Alex (hares ear had a really bad day on the Don last April cos he was using varivas hooks and there was a lot of comment on them in a previous thread.

Peter

[haresear]

Pete, although I really like the shape of the hook (Varivas 2200) I found they are just like fishing rods. They don't like to remain bent

I've never found a hook which straightens so readily. Maybe they are OK if the point goes in up to the bend, but when you the point is just in, they will straighten, even on fairly modest sized fish. They are not for me.

Alex

[Pete]

Useless, all they do is loose fish.
Do yourself a favour and dont go there.

Annoyingly, I had taken a shine to them (I liked the shape) since starting to tie my own flies this spring so about fifty of the flies I have tied are on them already :roll:

Not any more though.

Alex, I was interested by your comment, I had thought them very brittle, having broken a couple when playing around with the pliers to try to kink the shank a little.

At least I know now not to bother with them... :?

Pete

[haresear]

Alex, I was interested by your comment, I had thought them very brittle, having broken a couple when playing around with the pliers to try to kink the shank a little.

Funny you should say that, Pete. I tried to pass some of my flies tied on the hooks on to a mate (wasn't that nice of me? :roll:) and he told me that he had one snap easily too, wheras I had found they bend.
Obviously some are over tempered and some perhaps under tempered. it's a pity because they looked so promising.

Back to B100s for me.

Alex

[.D.]

I'm not keen on the 2200, barbless or not.

However, I'd use the Varivas 2120WB long before a Partridge Surehold Lightning Dry or a Tiemco 103BL. For hackled wets and some of my dries. You can always tie round the bend on conventionally shaped hooks if you want a little bit of a curved abdomen.

.D.

[deergravy]

It's a shame about those Varivas hooks, such a nice shape and so fine in the wire. Plus the wee boxes you get with them are brilliantly designed.
Sadly, the hooks are soft as sh*te.
B100s or TMC2487s are the way to go.
I think Tiemco make the best fly hooks, pity they're not more widely available. (Easily bought online, not so easy in your average tackle shop)

Dave

[Pete]

I was passing Countrylife on Thursday so stocked up with B100's, now I have just got to tie replacements for all the ones I had already done on the Varivas hooks.

Well it's something to do I guess

It is a shame, they looked such a nice shape.

Pete