Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.
Anyone here tie with these hooks? My concern is the wire is a light wire, and bends very easily in my vise under thread pressure. I have tied with Tiemco 100's & 101's, and they too are light, but they seem just a bit stiffer than these Firehole hooks.
Has anyone here had a fish straighten these hooks out ( assuming someone here has fished with them ) or am I being too concerned over nothing?
I've never heard of them. I typically only use Tiemco 100 for my dry flies. I've never had a fish, even big fish, open the gape of the hook. If the hook is bending in the vise just from thread tension I would venture to say the wire is either very thin or the tempering process was not done correctly.
The Tiemco hooks are what I have been using for years, but I have had multiple issues buying a pack of #14 for example and getting a mixture of 14 & 16, or 14 & 12 in the same package.