Published Dec 2. 2013 - 10 years ago
Updated or edited May 18. 2017

Never fish with a broken hook!

Am I dumb or what? Who would fish with a broken hook? Well, a lot of people do, actually. I do now and then, although rarely on purpose.

Badly beaten - Thi9s fly has kissed the rocks in a backcast. Not only has the materials come loose, but the whole tip and barb is gone. I had fished it for at least 10-15 minutes before seeing this.
Broken for good
Martin Joergensen

I have fished with broken hooks many times! Not on purpose, mind you, but because the hook has broken while I was fishing, and I didn't notice.
I have lost a number of fish because of broken hooks or dull or bent hook tips. Not because the fish were immensely strong, but because the hook was either weak or because it was already broken when the fish took the fly.
This article will try to help you avoid that it happens to you.

The TAG hook

We all know the game of playing tag. You run after the people you are playing with, and a mere touch is enough for your to "score" - either stunning the victim or making him or her "it".
Many years ago the British hook manufacturer Partridge made a TAG hook as an April's fool joke. TAG was for Touch And Go, and the hook had no point! It had a ring eye in both ends, both where you tied it on the leader, and where the point would usually be.
If you were to tie a fly on such a hook, you could play tag with the fish. A fish could take the fly, but would very likely escape seconds after and never be hooked. Some people might consider that a caught fish, but most of us prefer to both fight and land the fish in order to say that we had the full experience of the fishing.

A snag did this - After having been pulled out of the rocks, there was very little left of this fly. Always inspect your flies after a snag
What rust can do - This is a typical example of a hook shank that has rusted under the materials and broken clean off in the rear of the shank.
Rust will kill flies
Martin Joergensen

I have played tag

I have played tag with many fish, but not using a hook designed for the purpose. The reason my hooks were touch-and-go was because they were broken or dull.
Hooks do break, and in many cases we don't notice before we loose a fish, and inspect the fly in wonderment over this strange incident - and notice that it has no point!
The hook can break for many reasons. Oftentimes it's a combination of a weakened hook and a bad cast or a snag. Hook points also become slightly dull or bent, and however insignificant that may seem, it severely limits its hooking ability.

Unnoticed

Hooks that have been in the water - fresh or salt - will start to rust. Fast if you fish the salt, slower if you fish freshwater. A damp fly in a closed flybox is a surefire way to weaken a hook, and once it's weak, it can easily break when being pulled out of a snag, hitting a log or a rock in the backcast or even enduring the strain of fighting a fish.
And it will of course do so unnoticed by you. No loud snaps or distinct feelings of breakage. One moment the point is there, the next it's gone. And you happily fishing on until the fish is lost and you are wondering how that perfect cast, that deliberate take and that resolute hook set could ever result in a missed fish!
You inspect the hook and Violá! The hook point is gone.

Point gone - This small #12 nymph has no hook point at all, and will be very hard to hook anything on. It can be hard to see, but poking the point gently into a fingertip will reveal how dull it is
Telltale signs - Small patches of rust on the bare parts of this fly tells a story of more rust probably hiding under the materials.
Check the fly
Martin Joergensen

So how do you avoid this?

Several little things can ensure that this doesn't happen.
First of all: make it a habit to inspect the fly now and then. Simply pass it between your fingers every tenth or twentieth cast and look at the hook point. On rare occasions the whole hook point and barb will be broken off, and it will be very obvious that the fly is useless. But more often the hook point is slightly bent or dull, and it requires a close inspection to see that the point isn't good.
You can poke the point gently into the skin of a finger to feel if it's sharp. Some anglers use a fingernail. If the point can catch the nail when passed over it, it's really sharp, but even though the point can't catch the nail, it can still be sharp.
A couple of other ways to avoid broken or bent hooks is to keep the hook away from rocks, branches and other hard objects - especially in the backcast where you don't notice the potential damaging contact.
Also make sure your hooks are not rusty. And that's not just visible rust, but also the devious rust under the materials, which you don't see, but which can significantly weaken the hook shank. It's difficult to see, but sometimes there will be traces of color, and rust stains on the visible part of the hook can be a telltale sign of rust underneath.

Varnish the hook - A layer of nail polish or varnish on the bare hook will make it last significantly longer
Varnish underway - If you varnish the fly a couple of times underway - depending on the materials of course - it will become more durable and less prone to rust
Varnish will preserve
Martin Joergensen

Tie to last

Using stainless hooks might seem like a good solution, but much stainless steel is actually quite brittle and breaks much more easily than non-stainless steel, which is softer. Of course it can rust, but many of the modern hooks are treated in different ways, and will stand up to even saltwater very well.
If you fish the salt, it's a good idea to varnish the hook before you tie. Simply use head cement or nail varnish and cover the full shank and some of the hook bend and let it dry thoroughly before tying the fly. This little trick will make your flies last a lot longer - and make them more durable, because materials and tying thread will "bite" into the varnish and stick much better on the fly.

Touch and go - A perfect fly for C&R - but probably not the way you want to do it.
Even strong hooks break - This hook was fresh and unmarred, but simply broke on a strong Icelandic salmon in hard current
Even new hooks break
Nils Folmer Jørgensen - Ken Bonde Larsen
Hook sharpeners - Top to bottom: Sierra Stream and Mountain for medium hooks, EZE Lap for large hooks and Waldron ceramic for small and medium hooks.
Hook sharpeners
Martin Joergensen

Keep them sharp

If the hook point goes dull or bends a bit on a perfectly good fly, you can actually save it by sharpening it.
Hook sharpeners come in many shapes and materials, and depending on the type and size of fly you are fishing you need different tools.
The heavy duty saltwater hooks can be sharpened using a file. There's plenty material to work with and no finely tuned, chemically sharpened hook point to mess up.
On finer hooks in the sizes ranging from #2 or#4 to about #10, most hook sharpeners will work. Some are quite coarse and will take off a bit of material, while others are fine and will just ever so gently add a point to an otherwise dull hook.
On the finest hooks - dries and nymphs - you have to be careful. You can sharpen them, but there's little material to work with and you need a really fine sharpener, like a smooth, ceramic tool.
Some hooks have intricately shaped points, which you cannot recreate with a sharpener, and others are chemically sharpened, and will most likely never become as sharp as they were when you bought them. But a good sharpener should still be at hand when you fish, to quickly restore a hook point when possible.

Used and unused

Take note that flies fished in freshwater also rust. Maybe not as quickly, but freshwater can also initiate the process.
You should also divide your fly stash in two: used flies and new ones. Or flies you fish right now and flies you intend to fish later.
If you reuse your flies as most of us do, keep the used flies separate from the unused ones. Use a sheep skin or foam patch to hold them until they are dry. I even know fly anglers who rinse their saltwater flies in freshwater and dry them before returning them to the box.
Damp or wet flies will rust, especially if they have been in the salt, but what's surprising is that they can start the rusting process in flies that have never been in the water, and a box of flies in a pocket or a bag can slowly deteriorate without you noticing.

Contamination - A wet fly - especially one that has been in saltwater - in a box like this, can mean rust spreading to unused flies. Leave the used flies outside to dry before putting them back in the box
Rust can spread
Martin Joergensen

Comments

Some need to touch t...

Some need to touch the catch. Some need only to see the fish up close (old eyes you know). I play "how long can I keep the fish on" using my broken hook! Use for evening and winter fishing. Makes releasing much easier.

Levered cam fly vise...

Levered cam fly vises, especially those with narrow jaws, put an amazing amount of pressure on the hook wire. I have heard this pressure can weaken the steel in the hook wire. I believe it; the broken hooks I have found myself fishing with broke right where the vise jaws were on the hook bend. To prevent this I use a technique suggested by Art Flick: Cut a small piece of light cardboard/paper (like a cereal box), bend it in half, and place the hook bend between the halves. Trim the cardboard so it won't protrude far beyond the vise jaws, place the paper-wrapped bend of the hook in the vise and close the jaws with about half the pressure you normally use. The hook will be held rock-solid in the jaws of even the cheapest vise and the chances of the hook breaking are greatly reduced.

One thing not mentio...

One thing not mentioned is the hook quality. Cheap hooks have points that break off. Also a cheap hook has inferior wire and doesn't have high carbon wire. Cheap hooks aren't a bargain if the points break off. I can't recall the last time I broke a point off, I don't fish saltwater though. If you sharpen points, that will often remove the coating, causing them to rust. Black Nickel hooks are usually the sharpest and some of the worst are blackened salmon hooks, those usually almost always have dull points because they are painted.

Bending hooks removes a hook's tempering. When the heat treating fails, the hook usually breaks. Cheaper hooks are almost always not heat treated well because that involves another step which costs time and money.

I've dropped fly boxes in the water and usually at the end of fishing for the day, I remove the flies. wrap them in a towel and bake them in the oven at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. You need a cotton towel or paper towel with no plastic fibers.

I've lost more than ...

I've lost more than one nice smallmouth bass because the hook went dull banging off the rocks. I carry a diamond sharpener and touch up any fly that won't bite into my thumbnail.

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