Which fly hooks sell best and what types of flies actually make with them?
We have a whole range of fly hooks in our assortment - there are more than 30 types of hooks from the Hanak Competition company alone. But as in every part of the fly fishing assortment, there are products among the hooks that sell much better than the others.
Let's take a look at which hooks from Hanak Competition we sell the most and show the types of flies that can be made with those hooks - bestsellers. We have pictures of flies to this text from Lubomír Švábek, who is the big fan of Hanak Competition hooks.
In our assortment, the best-selling type of hook is the jig hook. No wonder, because euro nymphing is very popular in our country and just as we sell the most jig flies, so is jig hook the clear number one best seller for hooks. Although we can find different shapes, wire strength or the position of the hook eye even among the jig hooks, basically the flies on the jig hooks are pretty much the same in type - jigs with a tungsten bead. But with one type of fly we can find hundreds of patterns thanks to the combination of different colors of beads and other fly tying materials.
And if you want to make something a little different on the jig hook, you can try jig loaded with Tungsten Body +. Such flies are even heavier than classic jig tungsten bead flies, they look interesting and they also catch a lot of fish.
Number 2 in terms of sales is the dry fly hook, unequivocally thanks to the type with a bent pont (H130 BL). This is good news that even in our region, the dry fly has not yet died out under the pressure of euro nymphing. Of course, nymphomaniacs will argue that small tungsten nymphs are also attached to this hook and that wet flies can be tied on the dry hook, but I am convinced that the sales volumes of this hook testify to the popularity of dry fly fishing.
We make imitations of caddisflies to larger sizes of these hooks and flies imitating duns to the smaller sizes, or the already mentioned delicate tungsten bead nymphs.
In the third place in our sales is surprisingly long-term a wet fly hook, mainly thanks to the great H230 BL, which is basically based on the shape of the H130 BL dry hook, it is only reinforced for the needs of wet fly fishing. We make primarily classic patterns of wet flies (e.g. March Brown, Black Pennell, Bibio, Spiders and many others) with wet hooks, patterns of nymphs without a bead (Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail) and of course this hook can also be used for tying tungsten bead nymphs. And we must not forget that we can also tie smaller lures for still water fly fishing with wet hooks.
Finally, the some time ago best-selling Czech Nymph hooks (Shrimp or Grub Hooks) are nowadays in the 4th position. They of course "suffer" from the onset of tungsten jigs and nymphs. But for now, Czech Nymph patterns still have a firm place in our fly boxes and I believe it will stay that way.
In addition to Czech Nymphs, we can also tie imitations of caddis larvae or gammarus (freshwater crustaceans) to Czech Nymph hooks. And as you can see from the below pictures, the poisonous patterns of the Czech Nymphs can also be made on similar hooks designed primarily for still water buzzers.
The last type of hooks that are still worth mentioning is the streamer hook, although its sales volumes are already significantly lower. But maybe I'll keep this type of hook for another article to boost its sales a bit.
Other types of special hooks are not essential from the sales point of view and are basically only in the assortment as a supplement for those fly tyiers and fishermen who sometimes want to deviate from the trodden mainstream path.
And now the best in the end - thanks to Lubomír, you can get a lot of inspiration to make fly patterns that will both look great and catch many fish. So take a look at the image gallery and on Lubomir's Facebook profile.
