For a novice, discussing hooks is got to be about as appealing as watching paint dry. For the Fly Tier, it's a passion, because it is the easel for which he builds his art. For the rest of us fly flingers, it becomes the vital connection between man and fish. Let me make a statement. Once a steelhead puts a fly in his mouth, nothing in your arsenal, including rods, reels, lines, and leaders, will determine the outcome of a fight as  much as the hook. Why? Because without successful hook penetration and the ability of the hook to maintain that hold, there is no fight.

Are all hooks created equal? Unfortunately, No.

Properties of a steelhead hook:

Strength: Physics says that the tensile strength of the hook must surpass that of the leader tippet.

Story: I was on the river a few years ago and was in the process of releasing a fish. I was having a little more success than the boys around me were so they crowded around to see this "Mystery Fly." It was a #12 Hares Ear on a regular trout hook.

"Heh!" This guy says, " You can't land steelhead on that!" (I just did) What he didn't notice was that in this low water spooky fish scenario, I was also fishing a 4X tippet and a 5-wt. rod to cushion it. My point is -  the limiting factor was not the tinsel strength of the hook but the leader behind it. In other words, the leader would break before the hook would bend.

Think about that. Popular steelhead fly hooks have the tinsel strength to lift a truck. It there a down side? Sometimes. These same hooks in larger sizes have thick diameters, and take more Pounds per Square Inch (PSI), to penetrate the mouth of a steelhead. Most steelhead are lost because the fly did not find a good purchase in the first place. These same hooks have a poor taper from bend to point. They are way too fat. Savvy anglers who insist on fishing these hooks carry a mill file and increase the taper. Hypodermic Needle: What do I look for? I want a hook that penetrates so well, that if a steelhead just picks up the fly, he will be hooked. The fly should slide into the hold with very little PSI, like a hypodermic needle. You trout fishermen; Remember the first time you fished really little hooks and you were amazed that not only were you able to land fish, but by simply lifting the rod that little hook just buries? Low PSI .

What hooks do I like? Fine wire hooks such as the Atlantic Salmon low water style are good. This is also a good place to talk about conservation. The larger hooks and I mean those irons from 2/0 and above not to only create a larger hole, they also increase the likelihood of penetrating a vital organ. Don't tell me it doesn't, I used to fish them and I stopped when I found myself trying to release a large native hen with her left eye filling with blood left from the penetration of a 3/0 hook point. She was going to die and I knew it. I never fish above a 1/0 now. Never had the problem unless they swallowed it, since.

Shank to gap ratio: This a little harder to explain. Science has demonstrated that the closer the hook is shaped like a circle, the more angles the fish can pivot on the hook without it loosing its purchase. This became evident to me while experimenting with lots of steelhead in Alaska. I noticed that when fishing flies with the Beak style hook, where I didn't get quite so many hookups, if I hooked the steelhead solidly, my landing ratio jumped nearly 20%. Conversely, the long shank streamer hook was far superior in the life like action of streamers and also hooking "Nippers" but my landing ratio fell by 30%. What do I do? Look for a streamer hook with a moderate shank (not above 1X) and a good hook gap.

Hard Steel: One of the criteria that separate steelhead hooks from trout hooks is the steelhead iron must be able to take the abuse bouncing around the rocks on the stream bottom without losing sharpness or bending out or breaking. Only fish forged hooks and stay away from soft irons.

Another pearl of wisdom: If you want increase your hooking and landing ratio by as much as 50%, buy a 3" mill file, put it on your body some place REAL convenient (so you will use it) and touch up your hook point when you hang up. I am astounded by the number of anglers I have fished from all points of the compass that don’t even OWN a hook sharpener. I tell my anglers this: "The difference between you wondering if that might have been fish and "There HE Goes!" is how sharp did you keep your hook. It is not a little thing, it’s a Big Thing.

Pull to the shank: Fly tiers get passionate about their artsy hooks and most of your steelheading is a throwback from Atlantic Salmon fishing and that means up turned eyed hooks. These hooks look nice and they swim well. The knot of tradition is the turle, which is slipped through the eye and onto the shank. This produces a straight pull to shank and the hook point. That’s good. Problem, the popular knots on the west coast are those tied directly to hook eye, but this angle of attack is wrong -  pulling the hook point away from, and not into the fish. Savvy anglers have noticed this and break the eye off completely and build their owe eye usually out of braided mono. This produces the straight pull to the shank and I believe the most efficient hooking potential. So, down turned eyes are OK, ring eyes and (return loop straight I haven't found yet) are ideal, and if you use upturned eyes, use a turle knot or break the eye and build your own.