Ok I got my first catalog of the winter today. Looking through it I saw that Diachi has a line of tube fly hooks that go down to size 16. Curiousity prompts me to ask does anyone have a pattern that would use a # 16 on a tube? And at that size what would the benefits be versus a fly on a conventional hook? Or am I falling victim to a typo?
Tiny tube flies are sometimes used in the UK and Ireland, as well as Iceland, for grilse during hot weather and low water conditions. They are tied on section of tubing about 1/4"-1/2" long and over here are typically fished with a #14, #16 or even #18 treble hook. Patterns are generally just slimmed-down versions of conventional flies - mostly ordinary hairwings, but I have seen mini versions of salmon shrimp flies, too. A similar sort of fly can be achieved by tying directly onto a small treble hook.
I think the supposed advantage over a conventional fly is their lightness and slimness, while still retaining good fish-holding ability. You can see some pictures of tiny flies in the 'Salmon flies' section of this Icelandic site:
There is an article in the most recent issue of American Angler that covers this very topic. Although it doesn't deal with hook sizes that small, it gives a good deal of background on the use of tube flies for trout (streamer type flies).
Cheap supply of a smaller size tubing to try is that used for some brands of Q-Tip type swabs! You can use a heavy niddle clamped into a vise to slide the sections onto for tying!
FliTrap
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