Surely there must be better hooks?

[E.T.]

Guys

I am so disgusted. I have tied almost all my flies in my flybox on Grip hooks.
I never had a problem with them seeing that most tackle stores these days sell these hooks.

This weekend I had one of those dog days. I broke one of my rods, got hammered by a big Carp that bent the hook open and I even had hooks brake.

Like the one below



I wanted to see what nymphs would do on this section of the water we fished and this is the end result.

I was standing below a weir with not that much space available behind me so if you did hook something you needed to put pressure on the fish, turn it and bring it to the net. The Grip hooks couldnt do that for me.

If I had better hooks on my line I would have landed that Carp. I estimate it at about 12kg's. This I estimated as the fish jumped clear of the water on one of the many brutal runs.

Never have I seen a fish run upstream and across the current in a straight line, this on full drag and a reel spinning so much that I coudnt even stop it with my palm on the reel.

This was just one of those humbling days......EISH!!!!

[jock0]

Did you try and debarb the hook yourself? IF you did the only tip I can give you is to actually use forceps to do it instead of pliers - you dont need to "remove" the barb but just flatten it.

I prefer mustads and tiemco's but if you're looking for super strong nymph hooks then give the gamakatsu 3xh's a try. The shop in voortrekker road has plenty normally.

Not cool to hear it cost you a fish!

[JAG]

E.T

Look to your right on the screen. Hanak makes excelent barbles nymph hooks.
We use them for competions. Very strong and long needle points for better hookups.

[Andre]

I have fished with Grip hooks for years, have always flattenned the barb, and have not had any problems ...until recently. It seems that the quality has deteriorated, or there is a bad batch in the country. I spoke to john at Upstream about it, and he is doing some enquiring with the manufacturers. It looks like they may have changed something in the steel compound, but there seems to be a general dissatisfaction in the last few months.
Re hannak hooks...it is quite refreshing to finally find the Utopia of hooks. Sharp, durable, and really a lot easier to tie with, due to the wider gape.
I love them.

[Scythe]

Ja the 'recent' definition handed to the issue is total BS, the GRIP hooks have had tempering problems for the last going on a year and a half now.

My pleas to Arno have been met with the usual bout of being ignored and sadly enough after many years of loyal GRIP patronage I will now be replacing my GRIP Nymph/Caddis hooks with Hanak, Tiemco and Gamakatsu.

[frikb]

This is not the first time I heard about the hooks breaking. Seems like Arno will have to do something about this. All the shops that I frequent mostly stock these hooks. Sounds like a gap in the market for Wiets to get into.

[Herman Jooste]

Koos, I now tie all my flies ( including dries ) on either Daiichi scud hooks ( bait hooks, and the size 16 are barbless.
I will be ordering some hooks from Korrie as soon as my current stock starts getting a bit lower, as I get these hooks 100 at a time for 57 bucks

[Wade]

Ja the 'recent' definition handed to the issue is total BS, the GRIP hooks have had tempering problems for the last going on a year and a half now.

My pleas to Arno have been met with the usual bout of being ignored and sadly enough after many years of loyal GRIP patronage I will now be replacing my GRIP Nymph/Caddis hooks with Hanak, Tiemco and Gamakatsu.

This is not the first time I heard about the hooks breaking. Seems like Arno will have to do something about this. All the shops that I frequent mostly stock these hooks. Sounds like a gap in the market for Wiets to get into.

I have also spoken to him on occasion and he assured me (last year Nkolo bells) that the new batch will be much better - not - I went and wasted money on more crappie hooks. Now i am in the process of replacing all my hooks as one of the most frustrating occurances that happen to me on the river is to loose a fish due to fauly tools (hooks that bend,break).

I must just add that i have had one or two TMC hooks bend on me but mostly when trying to haul a monster from the deep with no concern for the hook. But percentage wise about 5 or 6 TMC's have bent (none broke) in the past year while many many more Grip hooks bent or broke.

I have also done as Herman and many other have and started to look amoungst the bait hooks for suitable substitute that does not cost half my anual income for a few boxes.

[E.T.]

Koos, I now tie all my flies ( including dries ) on either Daiichi scud hooks ( bait hooks, and the size 16 are barbless.
I will be ordering some hooks from Korrie as soon as my current stock starts getting a bit lower, as I get these hooks 100 at a time for 57 bucks

Ja my Oompie....

A friend of mine fishes for the Gauteng Shore Angling team and he swears by the Daiichi. I went out today and purchased some scuds in 12 & 14. I also got some DH-55's in size 0.8 this is a straight shank that matches a size 16 nymph hook, but this hook has a wide gape. And it looks super strong. I will now be tying all my nymphs on these. A box of a 100 cost me R60.00.

I will also tie my nymphs on these for the Freshwater Flyswap, because I believe that these will do the job!!!

I will go and challenge that Carp for round two pretty soon!!!!

[Dieter]

I've had the same problem with the Grip hooks breaking, spoke to Arno he requested I mail him examples of the broken hooks, I did this and after several attempts at getting answers, I was ignored..

I have subsequently stopped buying/using Grip hooks and have started using Hanaks, Gama's, Mustads, Tiemco, Partridge even some Japanese make Carp hooks that works great for control flies..

And I must say I have never looked back, it's just a dissapointing case of bad customer service..

In my opinion the Hanaks are excellent hooks..

Cheers

Dieter