Stevie,
The hook gap IS the hook size. All you need is a guage to distinguish the different sizes. Or compare them to other hooks you know are a specific size.
Next is shank length which is determined by XL size. For instance. A # 14 dry fly hook or nymph hook has a specific shank length. If the hook shank is a little longer by one size (as a #12 normal) it would be a #14 1xl. A #14 2XL would have the length of a #10 normal hook and so on. Shorter shanks are "sprouts" and curved shanks like scuds and such have a different gap to size ratio.
You can get a griffin hackle guage that you can use to measure hooks.
I got a few hours use out of it during the football playoffs in 2006 when my cat knocked my entire hook collection onto the carpeted floor in my tying room. Literally thousands of hooks in about 20 or more sizes that I put in a dish and put piles on a big refrigerator magnet that sat on the lid of my open box. At the top of the magnet I put a sample of each hook after matching the ones already sorted. When I found a size that didnt match I put it at the top. I kept dragging hooks up and matching them. When I had 5 in a row I threw them in the box. Took a couple hours and a whole lot of Rolling Rocks.
I now close that door when I go out of town. :lol:
Good luck with that.
Maurice
