The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

Gamakatsu has been making premium quality hooks since 1955. Made of high quality, High Carbon Steel Gamakatsu hooks are super sharp and consistently perfect out of the box. They are made in thier own facility, which is one of the most technologicaly advanced in the world.  Gamakatsu measures hooks by the sharpness, hardness, and viscosity of the point. Using low quality materials results in points that are weak and not truly sharp. In order to use High Carbon Steel , Gamakatsu developed a unique electronic tempering process which enables hooks to be tempered in a stable condition. As a result, Gamakatsu is able to manufacture consistently high quality, extremely sharp hooks in large quantities.

Gamakatsu’s numbering system.

Going way back to old bronze Mustad and Partridge Hooks we’ve used a numbering system. We learned the numbers because that is just what you did. I am sure they had some sort of system in mind when the 3399a and 94840 were created but I never figured it out, I just memorized the numbers and equated numbers to hook type and style.  Over the years we learned to equate old Mustad numbers with new TMC numbers, 94840 became 100 and 9672 became 5262. Again not really sure what the numbers signified. Gamakatsu explains their numbering system in thier catalog and it really makes sense.

For example S11s-4L2H breaks down like this:

First letter=style of bend (S) is sproat, P=perfect C=curved  B=Bend L=Limerick T=Tapered R=Retainer

Second is the Model Number 11 is Gamakatsu’s model number for the given hook

Third Letter refers to the Eye Style, S=straight, U=up, V=vertical

Fourth in the code is the length of the hook L=Long, S=Short in the examples case we have a 4x long hook shank 

Fifth and finally possible code is the hooks strength H=hard/strong, F=fine, for our example we have 2x strong.

Not all Gamakatsu hooks use the entire code, they have used simpler terms for hooks with few variables and make some assumtions on more standard hooks. For example the C14S, our most popular glo bug hook, C=Curved 14=Model number and S=Straight eye, for the S10a fantastic dry fly hook S=Sproat or Standard bend 10=model number and everything else is assumed, down eye,  standard wire, standard length.

Below is a discussion of many Gamakatsu fly hooks. Each hook was developed with specific applications in mind.  These are amazing hooks and anglers will not be dissapointed with their performance.

S10 Standard Down Eye, multi use dries and wets. We have been using the S10 as our standard dry fly hook, it’s slightly longer than most standard length hooks, light, strong and micro-barbed for easy crimping.

C15BV Vertical Eye, Emerger/Klinkhammer Barbless Hook. Super light wire designed to have the curved shank sit  sub surface. When tying sparse emerger types this is a nice choice. Near the eye there is a flat spot for a parachute post or wing.

C14S Glo Bug hook. Short Shank, ridiculously strong and sharp, we love this hook for glo bugs, tube fly trailer hooks, and carp corn flies.

L11S-3H Salmon Steelhead 3x strong. We love this one for Chinook flies. Comets and Clousers are excellent on the L11S-3H.

B10S Stinger Hook, 1x strong  Stinger.  Awesome bass fly and streamer fly hook with a massive gap, sharp point and straight eye. Barrett likes this one for his Bassmaster Cascade Killer.

T10-6H Salmon Steelhead Tapered Loop Up-Eye.  A good all around standard wire Steelhead fly hook.  Elongated razor sharp point makes the T10-6H sticky.

SP11-3L3H Perfect bend Saltwater long shank. Great for poppers, longer streamer patterns and billfish in the larger sizes. Tin plated, sharpenable and friendly when you leave it in a fish.

SC15 Saltwater wide gap, tin plated. Excellent for shrimp patterns, saltwater tube flies, and small tarpon flies. Lighter wire than the SC17 makes this hook a bit more versatile in saltwater arena.

SC17 Tarpon specific. This hook is an absolute killer. Once this one sticks it’s the best hook on the market to help you land the fish. Extra strong and sharp this hook is flat out burly. Tarpon Toads and Bunny Baitfish patterns are must on this hook.

SL45 Saltwater Bonefish Hook. I really like this hook for lighter bonefish flies. When you are tying your tailing patterns, no eyes or mono eyes the SL45 is great. My hook up rates are better with the SL45 than the Mustad 3407.

For consistently high quality, sharp hooks with great design give Gamakatsu a try, you will not be disappointed.–CD

This March Brown pattern sits half in half out. It does a great job of imitating the may fly struggling to break the surface meniscus. The Klinkhammer will fool the pickiest of trout with it’s slim, sparse profile. Best results come by fishing the Klinkhammer dead drift down stream to rising fish during a March Brown hatch.

Klinkhammer Style March Brown
Hook: TMC 2488 size 12
Thread: 6/0 Uni Thread
Tail: Lemon Wood Duck
Rib: Fine copper wire
Dubbing: Australian Possum
Hackle: Brown
Post: Neon colored Antron

A great march brown imitation for the lower McKenzie River, the Hare’s Ear March Brown is a must-have pattern. This buggy wet fly is great in any number of situations, but should fish really well these next few weeks. It’s definitely worth having some of these easy-to-tie patterns in your spring fly box.

Hare’s Ear soft hackle
Hook: 3761 TMC Size 10
Thread: 6/0 black uni
Tail: Lemon wood duck
Rib: Lagartun Gold Tinsel
Body: Hare’s ear dubbing
Hackle: Partridge

Clark’s Stonefly is a great pattern for fly fishing our McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. This is an easy golden stonefly imitation — it only takes Barrett four and a half minutes to tie it. FYI… if you click on the “HQ” button on the player you can watch this in video higher quality if you have a fast internet connection.

Clark’s Golden Stonefly
Hook: Size 8 TMC 2312
Thread: Black 6/0 uni
Body: Gold Tinsel
Underwing: Orange and yellow poly yarn
Wing: Elk hair
Hackle: Brown

Scott Richmond at Westfly has a great article on fishing big dry stonefly patterns:

Generally, a short, heavy tippet–3X or even 2X–will help you cast big, bulky flies more accurately. You also want a strong leader because a few errant flies are going to land in the trees and grass along the riverbank. A heavy leader gives you a better chance of pulling the fly out of the brush.

A few days ago, my brother and I decided to organize our fly tying materials. After a long winter at the vise, vodka and caviar-fueled evenings tying intruders and muskie flies, we needed to step back and regroup.

But where to start? I’d been watching this Gordian Knot grow in the bottom of my fly tying materials crate for months: kinky Antron fiber, unspooled fine copper wire, random hooks and chewed up ostrich plume, inextricably intertwined.

Our materials were in this condition because of laziness. Instead of putting materials away in the right place after a tying session, I’d dump them into the box for sorting later, knowing full well that the diamond braid would try to mate with the loose strands of trilobal chenille.

The only way to handle this kind of mess is with brute force. A big pair of scissors and an assortment of ziplock bags. I don’t need to go into detail here, but the basic idea is to sort materials into the smallest useful categories, and then bag them up so they don’t wad up into expensive, marabou covered knots.

It took hours to undo the mess, and we threw a lot away, but it was cleansing. And there in the bottom of the crate was my plastic box of misfit patterns, flies so bizarre that I hadn’t been able to just throw them away.

One fly looked like a dead starling, trying to carry two grizzly hackles back to its nest. Another, the candy cane shrimp, was hot pink and white and shaped like nothing in the natural world, tied on what must have been an expensive salmon hook. Then there were the “Crazy Bitch” series of nymphs, patterned after my favorite Deschutes fly, the Bitch Creek nymph, but tied in purple and pink instead of black and orange.

I actually put these back on the bottom of the box for some reason. Maybe as a reminder to lay off the sauce when I’m at the vise.

Sometimes, when I look at my fly tying area it appears that I took a direct hit from an incoming artillery round. So, as I walked around the 150+ tying stations at the Expo, I was thinking of my wood working friends and a better way of storing my material and tools. An organized tying area can lead to quicker tying and less headaches. Below are some of pictures of material storage boxes, and tool stands. Heads up my wood working friends…!

LV