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3. Hooks from Lilliput

Some Troutnuts will recall that Shawnny has been making small hooks, and he recently sent me some size 222 hooks (or thereabouts), so I'm calling him out publicly. A collector of rare feathers, he's probably trying to induce further accumulation of fly tying paraphernalia by me. Now I have to go looking for 300/0 tying thread and must shave some moths to make dubbing. Or I might try frog hair. Also does anyone have any micro hackle from lilliputan chickens? It will probably be too big, but I'll give it a try. Then there's tippet. Perhaps the spider building its web in my tying room (yes, I leave him there to catch the moths) can be induced to sell me a thread of its finest silk, or even to spin a furled leader that will turn over well and never ripple the stillest pool. And the rod, that's going to cost me something, as the guides will have to be custom made, along with other components. Perhaps Gutcutter has a source; I believe he has a cousin who builds rods, and I think he's going to be faced with the same dilemma, if he takes the bait. Oh, and a magnifier like the ones used by those who create art with butterfly scales. Now, what what else will I need?

hahaha... oh how complicated our fine art and sport must be in order to reach, success?

Louis is merely indulging in a little hyperbole. Or perhaps it's his aging eyes playing tricks on him. Those were big hooks, Louis. When you're ready to graduate to something more technical for those phantom risers, let me know.

-Shawn

And I thought Snipe hunters were at the far edge of outdoor sports...

Under (undue) pressure from my fishing buddy Chad aka 'The Trout Whisperer' I've graduated (receded? scaled down?) to 18's and 20's...a departure from the 1/0 spun-hair Bass Bugs that got me into fly-tying back in '93.

fair weather and tight lines to all,

The Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him..'

Shawn, this is what all those dry fly purists have been dreaming about!
What are you waiting for? Soon you could have purists from across the world buying your tiny particles of metal. LOL.

Sam

P.S. Beautiful website. What an amazing talent!

Shawnny
I have taken the challenge. I have some 20 denier thread (braided) and I'm currently working on un-twisting the thread to obtain just a single filament of it.
I can tie without a bobbin, but I'm working on a method of holding the hook.

For anyone who doubts this, I received 2 hooks, and they are slightly larger than the size of a "comma" on standard font.
They have a hook eye, bend and barbless point.
Amazing work, Shawn. I will try to get one done. I'm thinking midge emerger...

Rogue-


If you are insinuating that's what this thread is engaged in, I agree.:)

Tony -

Assuming you can actually hook and land a trout on such tackle, are you going to take your surgical equipment with you so as to be able to "extract" the hook and tie new flies on? Perhaps you should enlist (kidnap) one of your eye surgeon buddies to perform the surgeries so you can continue to stalk your adversaries with minimal delay. :)LOL

I'll take 500 as soon as they are available in quantity. I've been searching for a long time for a hook that is sized proportionate to the average size of the fish I catch.

This looks like it might be my answer.

Now, if somebody would only design and market a net with a mouth with no greater than 30 sq. inches of surface area (roughly a 6 inch diameter for a net with a circular mouth), my fishing world would be complete and it would do wonders for how impressive my fish-in-the-net photos would turn out...

Ha Ha! How about a tea strainer, Lee? Put the camera in macro mode and the photos should be quite impressive. Of course, you'll have to barter with Tony for one of his impeccably tied #222 Adams parachutes to be seen sticking in the lip of the guppy... :)

well, I actually 'saw' a sz 32 midge fly once- at least I thought I'd seen something...had no idea how anyone would be able to thread the eye on the thing with 8x tippet.
reminds me of pix I took of my daughter's 1st fly-caught smallmouth, I played with the depth-of-field on the camera and a 6" fish looked HUGE until you saw the sz 8 hook in its jaw- looked like a 4/0 next to the fish.

again, fair weather an tights lines to all,

The Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...'

Size 32's & 8x are hay hooks and tow cable compared to the tackle these guys are talking about.:)

I'm at a loss for words. Enjoying it immensely though. My gut response is to go tie some #1 streamers and mouses n such. BRrrrrrrrr...I'm getting the willies.

You know... I've been looking at stomach contents pf local trout and most of the stuff is truly minute. I was describing things in my journal and using terms like: small, little, tiny, minute, and miniscule. One trout had 5 "miniscule" caddis cases (that looked like Neothremma) which means he knew what he was after. I mean one could have been a happy accident. But five? How did he do it???
Shawn and Louis may be on to something. But I'm not so sure I want to know.

Funny Kurt! :) I'm wondering if we will hear from Tim Neal...He's the antithesis here...He's happy we have reached that time of year when those Grayling boys probably won't throw anything smaller than a size 12 for the major part of the season...and will consider that small. :)

Shawnny can be forgiven, he's from another planet...It's called Ithaca...Everything there is extremely uphill, there are no short-cuts, no easy way to get there, anywhere, from here. If you don't develop extreme patience there, or at least wonderful legs, you are dead...That explains too the perennial toughness of his beloved Cornell hockey team...Imagine hiking uphill with all your gear for a couple hour practise only to have to climb uphill again to get home. :)

Now Tony on the other hand...Hmmm...Obsession maybe? It's not like he has any extra time on his hands...He's a surgeon! A father, a few times over, and has to get the up-and-coming hockey star to practise once in a while...I must admit that a by-product of our respective hockey teams' early exit has freed up a little extra time...Flies are getting tied...But ones as small as a comma???! :)

I can barely see as it is...Without my cheaters I'd never be able to thread my tippet through the eye of my hooks...For a short period of my life I actually repaired crosshairs in old surveyors levels and I used real spider web...That was when I could see and I'll tell you the stuff really wasn't that strong...Relatively speaking. It certainly won't hold a good fish...:)

Spence

Paul -


Yep... On several of the streams I fish, early instar baetids make up a substantial portion of the benthic drift and hence a large portion of the trouts diet. They are so tiny, it's ridiculous. They break down pretty quickly, but with 10x magnification, you can just make out head capsules, legs and stuff (the periods and commas Tony is talking about). The are quickly amalgamated into a sludge that probably numbered in the hundreds of individuals. The trout obviously have no trouble seeing them.

IMHO - that's why flies that look (and move) like hand painted statues, no matter how perfect in our eyes, are doomed to failure. Our first imperative is to imitate life. Shape, form and color should follow in the distance. In the final analysis, dubbing and soft feather barbules are hard to beat as the primary ingredients in any subsurface design.

Spence -


Yeah, he'll either come up with a gem of a comment, or just shake his head in private. He knows the minutiae boys are incorrigible...:)

Thanks, Sam and others. I have a bunch of new things I have to get photographed, but my wife is in between cameras right now, and we don't want to shoot any more pics until she has a new one. I'll let you guys know when I have some good pics of the little hooks up.

Can't wait to see what Tony whips up.

-Shawn

I went fishing yesterday and hooked into a 1" fry. Those fish couldn't even get there mouth around the size 12 brassie I was using. But I was just thinking those size "222" hooks would be the perfect size for the minnows.LOL.