The hook config. that (for most of us anyway) use for tube flys is a short shank, ring eye type hook for tubes.
Other posts have also suggested a 'circle hook' such as the Mustad c71s ss which appears to have a relatively short ring eye shank. These do come as large as 3/0's. The "Owner" brand also shows a more triditional short shank "AKI" in 1/0-4/0 that appear to fit your needs.
fae
I guess my question would be why such a large hook????
Most people out here use quite a bit smaller hooks than they would normally have on a standard steelhead iron. The big win with tube flys IMHO is you can fish smaller hooks which stick better in a fishes mouth than a bigger hook. I am found of the gammie octopus hooks in size 4.
I guess I would not see a reason to ever go above a 1/0 unless I was fishing for 100lb+ fish.
I have tied a few saltwater patterns for coho and cutthorat out here and the tiemco 911s in smaller sizes seemed to do the job.
I do believe he is saltwater fishing for stripers etc, I saw his original post on the striper board and it was suggested he try over here for some suggestions.
Like Juro said, I think the 800S is a good call - you just need to have a big enough hook holder for the eye.
ther oktopus hooks I saw have a tuned up eye. Will that work?
I guesse that the big hook is for big mouths. A little 0/2 hook looks like it would get spat out with the gallons of water. Also, many of these small hooks have very heavy gauge wire. I would like to keep it light(better penitration).
Thanks for the help.
Some guys on the board do not like the octopus hooks due to the upturned eye but I have not had a probelm. A suggestion Norseman on the board had was to cut the back of your tube at an angle to match up with the upturned eye of the octupus hook.
That seems to work pretty well however I have just been using surgical tubing for the hook holder and even without the cut tube the hooks still rides nicely. Dave steinbaugh showed us this setup at the tying session at the show and the upturned eye did not seem to be a problem for him and he catches a ton of fish.
Of course I have only hooked into smaller dollies so far but the hook seems to be setting pretty well in the corner of the mouth and I am confident it would do the same on a larger steelhead. I also like them cause they are a thinner gague wire and that helps with the hook penetration.
they looked perfect, I just wasn't sure about the eye.
As for the 800, the shank is longer than the same size Partridge(0/2) that I have.
Thanks, Eddie
ther oktopus hooks I saw have a tuned up eye. Will that work?
I guesse that the big hook is for big mouths. A little 0/2 hook looks like it would get spat out with the gallons of water. Also, many of these small hooks have very heavy gauge wire. I would like to keep it light(better penitration).
Thanks for the help.
they show "finally a circle hook with a long enough shank to tie most saltwater patterns. Nor-tempered 2x strong, 1x, straight eye and stainless steel" in sizes 10 to 3/0. Not 100% sure whose hooks these are but they're at the end of the Mustad" section on the page. So I'll "assume ....."
There's also a Stainless O'shaughnessy bend with a ball eye that runs from size 1 to 4/0.
fae
If you are not woried about securing the hook in a holder you can simply slip a small plastic bead above the hook and let the octopus hook swing free. This past July when I went on a Point Rip Trip off Monomoy, I used this successfully on Squid tube patterns, in fact I went as much as a 5/0 octopus hook - it worked like a charm.
You might try this hook on your tube flies. It is strong enough.
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