I'm tying midges and blue-winged olives this week, and I'm wondering what hook is just too small.
I think I'm going to tie midges down to size 24 and blue-winged olives -- and tricos -- down to 22 this time around. I do see that I own 100 size 26 tiemco hooks -- they look like metallic dryer lint -- but my 47-year-old eyes can't get happy over tying so small -- even while wearing glasses.
What is you smallest fly hook?

Welcome aboard Chester.

Based on the subject line, it is highly appropriate that KK would contribute to this thread.

18 is as small as I'll tie. Anything smaller I can't fumble finger around with, and can't see them after I cast them. I used to tie down to 24, but those flies now just sit in a box that I never carry anymore. I'm spending more time on stillwater and find that I can usually find something the fish will bite thats tied on a 12 or 14.

Fish4brains: Thanks! It's good to be here.

I have trouble seeing tiny flies on the water as well. I usually tie the dinky fly to a dropper leader, which I then tie onto the bend of a bigger fly -- say, a size 16 or 19 sparkle dun or x-caddis. I spot the bigger fly -- and then spot the smaller fly.
The only problem with this is when the fish eats the tiny fly before I can even spot the big fly. And, of course, there are the tangles....

over here in the boise area they use 22 BWO's, i was catching fish on 24 copper john's earlier this year

That should have been a size 18 -- not a 19 -- in an earlier post. Sigh.

Mreyns: On my blog, people are telling me that they don't tie or fish smaller than size 18. They must not live in Idaho, which is the national capitol of small flies! Small Copper Johns are deadly on Oregon's Deschutes River and Washington's Yakima River, especially in late summer.

Chester -
As needed I tie dries down to size 24; I keep a small box stocked with a variety of 18 to 24s - a small box holds a lot of them though one needs to be careful opening up the box on a windy day.

During the mid 1990s I would visit my son in Wisconsin to fish the spring creeks in SW part of the State. Great fun and by mid-summer a number of species of mays,caddis and midges would hatch daily with a size 18 being huge, 22 to 24 the norm and some where a 28 (the smallest I ever tied) would have been too big. Those heavily pressured fish really zeroed in on the smaller bugs. Often rather than trying to match the hatch we fished hoppers and crickets though even there size 14 hoppers were much more readily accepted than full size bugs.

Tight lines
Curt

i dont tie much on anything smaller than a 6... i'll buy the small ones

I have never tied anything below a #18, but have bought some. It always amazes me when I catch a fish on something that I can barely see, especially when the 6X tippet looks like a rigging cable when you compare it to the fly. I

bought a bunch of #20 and #22 BWO for the Yakima one day, and opened my box while standing on the Umptanum foot bridge to compare them to a bug sitting on the cable. They flew away in a gob, and I was stuck trimming on my #16 flies to match the hatch.

I mostly fly fish lakes, so I can usually get by with flies no smaller than #18, and that is for one specific hatch on one specific lake, which I have only hit twice in my life. The rest of the time #4 through #14 are fine.

Curt --
Good to hear from you. I know the fish wars are tough right now.
It's always amazing to me that fishing pressure can condition trout into becoming so picky. These beautiful creatures have wee brains, but I suspect most of that area is dedicated to the function of paranoia 24/7/365.

And showing them what they're eating is what it's all about....

I once bought a box of size 18 hooks, but the smallest I ever tied was size 16, and that was back before I needed reading glasses. I don't do enough trout fishing to need a lot of small flies. Now I just buy the little ones, but still I don't think I have any smaller than 18. I guess I haven't fished for really selective trout.

Sg

Salmo -- I'm sure you have fished over really selective trout -- it's hard to find dumb trout in the Northwest, unless you hike or row a long way from a road.

It could be that you're hitting the rivers and lakes at times when the trout are locking onto "normal" hatches, such as caddis and mayflies and stoneflies. I rarely fish midges on Oregon's Deschutes River during the summer, as the fish seem to be happy with caddis and mayflies.

The winter is a different story, as the fish are eating tiny blue-winged olives and midges. Maybe it's just a timing deal for you.

I try not to fish flies smaller than what's rquired. That said, there are occasions when it is necessary to go very small. A couple of years ago, a friend and I encountered a Caenis spinner fall at Lake Lenice when the fish were very selctively sipping tiny spent spinners that were no more than size 24 and 26. Of course neither one of us had anything that small or of the right color. During the next week I tied up what will probably be a lifetime supply in those sizes. Naturally, I have yet to run across that particular set of circumstances again.

Early Baetis hatches on the Yakima can present a similar predicamaent. Occasionally, Baetis imitations larger than the prevailing 20-22 naturals will be ignored even though the fish are perfectly willing to hit a size 6 or 8 Skwala imitation; go figure. In the rivers, in the fall, I've found sea-run cutthroat will sometimes get quite selectively keyed in on very small Baetis making for some of the most challenging and downright enjoyable fishing that the Northwest has to offer.

Anything smaller than 18 and more complicated than a zebra midge I buy.

Chester,

I've fished over a few selective trout, but I don't go trout fishing all that often. That minimizes my exposure to the selective ones.

As for what's too small, I'm lazy, and tying small flies requires me to wear coke bottle glasses, so I used the STP 25% off coupon to order some dries in 16 & 18 and some Copper Johns, PT, and Prince nymphs in 12, 14, & 16. At less than a buck apiece I'm probably money ahead.

Sg

KK is old.

























But thorough.

Youth and trickery always trumps old age and...

well...


oldness. You'll never be half the man Kaiser D used to be.



You old, fly line waiving, feather glueing, goat humping, unprofessional weed puller.

I have some 24 and 26 TMCs that I have tied up, but they are 1x. The size refers to the distance of the hook point to the shank (the depth of the bend) if I am not mistaken. This just reduces the amount of hook in the water and (in my mind) keep picky fish happy. For standard dries I don't go smaller than 20 myself.

1x, by itself might refer to any number of aspects of hook design. Where gape is concerned it does mean the distance between the hook shank and point but is normally referred to as "1x wide gape". The x system is also applied to hook wire diameter (as 1x heavy wire, or 2x light wire) and hook shank length (as in 1x long, 2x long, 2x short).