Straight or Down Eye?

[flyfish1955]

Spent the past several days tying my 2007 supply of flies. Just wonder something. For those of you that tye:
Do you prefer hooks with a straight eye or those with a down eye and why?
Just curious.

 

[Bamboozle]

I prefer straight eyes but I only use them in sizes 20-32. I feel they give me an advantage by offering additional clearance. But to be honest about it; even when I've fished down eyed hooks that small I haven't noticed much difference in "hookability".

The reason I use down eyed hooks for most of the rest of my flies is I think they look better, TO ME. I guess in my world a fly is 50% for me and 50% for the fish and a down eye hook is what I'm used to seeing.

I won't get caught dead with an up eye trout fly! :-D

 

[Philly]

I use straight eyed hooks as much as possible, and have even been known to straighted the eye out if the hook I want to use doesn't have one. Generally, I use the TMC 101's, TMC 2488 or TMC 518 for the bulk of my trout flies. Though I am seeing more SE hooks becoming available. It's easier to find SE hooks for warm water and salt water flies, though I do use the TMC 300 for a lot of bait fish patterns, and I do straighten the eye out as much as possible.
At one time, I believe, down eyed hooks had a function, but we no longer need to snell our flies to the leader before using them.

 

[MKern]

I use down-eye hooks a majoirty of the time. But on streamers I use straight-eye.
Bam, I have a purchased up-eyed hooks on accedent. Now I look to be sure; up-eyed are horrible.

 

[dryflyguy]

I use straight eye hooks on size 20 flies and smaller - just for that little extra bit of hook bite clearance. Use down eye on everything larger - I'm not sure, but I think down eye might give a little better hooking advantage - when you pull it would tend to drive the hook further home - just the opposite of the action with up eye?
Anyway, I never use up eye - in fact I dont know why anyone would, - other than maybe for a certain type of fly where they would be needed.

 

[RLeeP]

I generally use straight eye dry fly hooks for everything size 16 or smaller. Although I've been tying for a long, long time, I'm not a particularly good or neat tyer. Straight eye hooks are more forgiving when I tie off the heads on my flies, which are often pretty sloppy.

All this becomes even more impt. when the old eyeballs start to calcify in your 40's, of course.

Generally, I use Cabela's Model 4 hooks. I think they are as good as any Tiemco. I'll also use Dai-Riki when I can get them. In fact, I suspect the Cabela's hooks may be Dai-Riki or Dai-Ichi. They certainly aren't manufactured by Cabelas, at any rate. Stay away from Bass Pro Shop (White River) hooks. They have the temper of al dente pasta, IMO.

I still have a fairly good assortment of the old Mustad 94842's fine wire, TUE, in sizes 10-16. They contribute to an elegant silhouette if you're making a humpy or Wulff of some sort for display purposes. Otherwise, they're about useless, IMO.

 

[Chaz]

I use straight eyes for anything #20 or smaller. Otherwise I use down eyes.