On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:55:26 GMT, "B J Conner" wrote:

The last time the hook subject came up here I took a dozen each of Timeco,
Mustad, Eagle Claw and some old Herters hooks and tested them. They were
all # 12 dry fly hooks. The test used a two lb cannon ball weigh, 2'0" of
30 lb steel leader material, I set the hook points in a piece of nylon
clamped to the edge of a table. The eyeys were pointed down over the edge of
the table. Dropping the weight would make for a lound ping, a thud when it
hit the floor and a straghtened out hook. Did not break one hook , they
all straightened out. I had pictures of all of them but there lost in the
harddrive at the moment.
I could try it again with a slow pull and develope a stress -strain type
diagram , but I sure the answere to hook pricing is that some people like
to pay more for some things

My experience is this. Last year I just happened to run out of or very short of
most of my wet fly hooks. I had been using Mustads, many of them Mustad
Accupoints, their old high end hook. I replaced them with Dai Rikis and some
clearanced Tiemcos. My purely annecdotal experience with the Asian hooks is
that I don't like them as much as my old Mustads. My hooking percentage seemed
to be way down. Fish after fish would throw the hook. Of course I always ran a
diamond file along the old Mustads, something I only occasionally did with the
Far Eastern hooks. Being cheap, I'll use up the Asian hooks, being sure to
sharpen each one, but next purchase will probably be Signature Mustads or some
old AC Mustads if I can find them. I'm also going to check out the Eagle Claw
Laserpoints that Cabela sells. I have a couple packs of their streamer hooks
that I'm very impressed with.

g.c.