"Gaelic Supreme" Premium Handmade Trout Hooks



Handmade in Redditch, England

  • Our hooks have optimum tempering.
  • Optimum Tempering= strongest hooks.

    Unique Features:
  • Optimum tempering
  • Durable and color specific finish
  • All half raised eyes, except for styles demanding speciallly shaped eyes
  • Small 20% barbs
  • Specially selected bends
  • Chemically etched points

    2007 MSRP






    Hook Description
    Sizes
    Per 25
    a. Dry Fly Hooks - 4X F.W., 10 to 15, 2X F.W., 16 to 20.
    Round Bend. Matt Silver Finish.
    		Sizes 10 to 20, Standard Shank
    Plus Sizes 13, 15 & 17
    $7.95
    b. Long Shank Dry Fly - 4X F.W. Forged. Round Bend, Matte Nickel Silver Finish.
    		Sizes 8 to 12, 2X Long Shank
    $7.95
    c. Wide Gape Midge - Std. Wire. Forged, Round Bend, Matte Nickel Silver Finish.
    		Size 20, Standard Shank
    $9.95
    d. Larval - Std. Wire, Mod. Sproat, Slightly Bent Shank, Ring Eye. Matte Nickel Silver Finish.
    		Sizes 8 to 20, 2XL Shank
    $7.95
    e. Caddis Hooks - Std. Wire. Raised Eye. Forged. Humped Bend. Olive Enameled Finish.
    		Sizes 8 to 16, Curved Shank
    $7.95
    f. Grub Hooks - 1X Hvy. W. Down Eye. Forged, Humped Bend. Olive Enameled Finish.
    		Sizes 8 to 16, Curved Shank
    $7.95
    g. Nymph Hooks - Standard Wire. Forged, Round Bend. Olive Enameled Finish.
    		Sizes 6 to 16 , 3X Long Shank
    $7.95
    h. Oliver Kite Nymph Hooks - 2X Hvy. W. Limerick Bend. Light Olive Finish.
    		Raised Eye, Size 14 , 2X Long Shank
    $7.95
    Oliver Kite Nymph Hooks - 2X Hvy. W. Limerick Bend. Light Olive Finish. Down Eye, Size 14 , 2X Long Shank
    $7.95
    i. Wet Fly Hooks -Std. Wire. Forged, Sproat Bend. Olive Finish.
    		Sizes 6 to 16, Standard Shank
    $7.95
    j. Streamer Hooks - 3X Hvy. Wire. Forged, Round Bend. Bright Nickel Silver Finish.
    		Sizes 2 to 12, 5X Long Shank
    $7.95
    k."Syl Nemes" Soft Hackle Wet Fly Hooks. Down Eye, Sproat Bend, Bronze Enameled Finish
    		Sizes 6,8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 & 17, Std Shank
    $7.95
    l."Syl Nemes" Soft Hackle Wet Fly Hooks. Raised Eye, Sproat Bend, Bronze Enamel Finish Sizes 6,8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 & 17, Std Shank
    $7.95
    m.Mini Streamer Hooks - Forged, Round Bend. Bright Silver Finish.
    		Sizes 16, 3XL & 20, 5XL Shank
    $7.95
    Black Finish
    "
    $7.95
    Bronze Finish
    "
    $7.95
    n."Keith Fulsher's" Thunder Creek Streamer Hooks. 1X Hvy W. Tapered Ring Eye, Round Bend, Triple Bronze Finish Sizes 4 to 10, 5X Long
    $9.95
    o."Chris Helms' Wide Gape Heavy Wire Bass" Hooks. Forged, Round Bend, Ring Eye, Triple Bronze Finish Sizes 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 5X Long, 2X Short
    $9.95
    p."Mike Martinek's Menemsha" Salt Water Streamer Hook. Tapered Ring Eye, Perfect Round Forged Bend, Triple Bronze over a Zinc Finish Sizes 5/0, 3/0, 1/0 and #2. 5X Long, 3X Heavy
    $11.95
    q."Mike Martinek's Carrie Stevens" Rangely Streamer Hooks. Improved Carrie Stevens Hook. Tapered Half-Down Eye, Modified Sproat Bend, Triple Bronze Finish.
    		Size 1 , 10XL & 3XHeavy
    $14.95
    "Mike Martinek's Carrie Stevens" Rangely Streamer Hooks. Improved Carrie Stevens Hook. Tapered Half-Down Eye, Modified Sproat Bend, Triple Bronze Finish Sizes 1 & 2, 8XL & 2XHeavy, and 6XL & Stnd Wire
    $14.95
    "Mike Martinek's Carrie Stevens" Rangely Streamer Hooks. Improved Carrie Stevens Hook. Tapered Half-Down Eye, Modified Sproat Bend, Triple Bronze FinishSizes 4, 6 & 8, 8XL & 2XHeavy, and 6XL & Stnd Wire
    $11.95
    "Mike Martinek's Carrie Stevens" Rangely Streamer Hooks Sample Pack 11 Sizes/Lengths, 3 of each
    $20.00


    Belvoirdale order form


  • See our Salmon Hooks


    • How we designed a complete "NEW" range of trout hooks, from the ground up.

    In 1986 I decided that I didn't like the quality, selection or numbering system of the trout hooks available. I told a friend of mine, Jack Mickievicz, about my disatisfaction and he started to dream up an ideal range of trout hooks. He wrote an article in the Spring "Fly Tyer" in 1987 which described many of the features below. Being a consulting engineer, my instinct was to also ask respected tyers and fishers about their desires in hook design and performance. All the requests were weighed and a range of hooks were developed. This process is ongoing and any requests that appear to be necessary will result in another hook.

    TEMPERING

    We first need to understand the extremely important role that optimum tempering has on the performance of fly hooks. Tempering of hooks is a combination of art and science, sometimes called a "black art". When hooks have optimum tempering, the hook will break when the point is pulled away approximately 45 degrees from it's original position. For strength and durability, hooks should be manufactured from a high carbon steel, optimally tempered. This would provide a spring in the hook without snapping or bending. At the same time it would be able to be sharpened and resharpened, and would hold a sharp point. It takes considerably more pressure to break a high carbon hook than to straighten a soft hook or break a brittle hook. Optimal tempering produces:

    1. The strongest hook

    2. A hook that will be most durable for holding a sharp point ( it will not hold the sharpest point because it would require to be brittle to hold the sharpest point)

    3. A hook most resistant to breaking or bending when catching rocks on the backcast, an occurance even the most expert caster suffers on some windswept rivers

    4. A hook that may be easily made barbless by pinching down the barb.


    BARBS

    Because some of us believe in barbs and some don't and because some fisheries have barbless rules, all the fly hooks should be barbed but able to be debarbed easily. Because a large barb isn't necessary, the
    barbs should be small 20% barbs.


    EYES

    Why do weighted flies tend to run upside down? Why do unweighted flies often turn upside down when a tight line is used? Efforts to stop this often involve moving the weight around, etc.. So what is the problem? The problem is the down eye. Salmon fly fishers and tyers knew this a hundred years ago. Thus the half raised eye of the salmon hook. Any hook that goes underwater, a wet fly, nymph or streamer hook that is used to tie a fly that might be fished on a tight line should have a half raised eye like a salmon hook. Dry fly hooks will occasionally be used for subsurface flies and so dry fly hooks should have a half raised eye.
    Eyes must be well formed and form a complete and closed eye to eliminate problem with fraying the tippet.


    COLOR OF HOOK

    Why are all trout hooks bronze or bright silver? Why can't we have nymphy colored hooks?
    We have developed a series of colored hooks to suit the situation we believe most hooks will be used for.


    DRY FLY HOOKS
    A dry fly can be a thing of beauty by itself. The dry fly hook should be equally good looking and a perfect round bend shape would be most appropriate. The usual single bronze finish is unacceptalbe for two reasons. Firstly, the high carbon steels are prone to rusting. An actual plating would prevent rusting better and longer than a single baked on bronze finish. Secondly, the darkness of the bronze is poison inside of a light or pale colored fly. It darkens and sometimes completely changes the original color. A white finish would not affect a light fly or dark fly. This is achieved by plating the hook a matte silver nickel finish. This also makes the point blend in with the lightness of the sky and the mirror of the water better while preventing the hook rusting.
    The wire diameter should be tuned to the size of the hook. Most would agree that 3X fine is too fragile for size 20 hooks, yet in larger sizes, 8, 10, etc., 3X fine is too heavy to float properly. A badly designed feature of some modern hooks is the very fine wire used on the small midge hooks which combined with new strong fine leader material will cause severe tearing of the fishes mouth by the hook wire acting like a dull knife in the fishes mouth. The smallest hooks should not have so fine a wire that the hook will tear the fishes mouth, a standard wire can be used for these and they will still be able to float correctly. The following wire sizes are ideal:

    20 to 24Standard fine wire
    16 to 202X fine wire
    10 to 164X fine wire
    4 to 106X fine wire


    Hook sizes also should be fine tuned. All hooks smaller than size 20 should be a wide gape. This should be achieved by making use of short shanks in the line up of sizes. Both columns will tie basically the same size flies but the right column will have enough bite to hold larger fish more effectively.
    The same is true of the larger sizes, only in reverse. You don't need any larger gape than a size #10 for trout. Size #8, #6 and #4 should be long shanks. This will make big drakes and hoppers float better.

    instead ofwe would have
    #4#8 2X long
    #6#10 2X long
    #8#12 2X long


    WET FLY AND NYMPH HOOKS
    Wet fly and nymph hooks require designing from the ground up. Redundancy of sizes in different styles should be eliminated. There is little reason in having 1X long #14, 2X long #16, and 3X long #18. Although there is a difference in the gape in all three sizes, they all tie the same size fly. Also there is very little observable difference in a sproat bend and a round bend, as far as tying a given fly goes, to warrant keeping both on hand. So, you don't need both #3906 and #7948A, they're both regular length wet hooks. Mustad #38941 and #9672 are both 3X long, and there isn't really enough difference in #9671 and #9672 to warrant the investment. The same applies to the 4X long when compared to the 3X long. The 4X long hook isn't long enough for most streamers and is too long for most nymphs. The other thing I hate is the use of numbers to define a series of hooks. A wet fly, a dry fly, a nymph, a caddis, a wide gape midge, etc. is the only pleasant way to name a series of hooks, not numbers, we have enough numbers in the rest of our lives.
    We need a regular length sproat bend hook for all wets and small stature nymphs. For larger nymphs, we need a 3X long shank and why not have a perfect round bend on this large nymph hook. The specialty hooks needed to round out the wet flies are the caddis hook and grub hook, both needed for their short profile. A little known fact is that our caddis hooks also make the very best egg hooks for steelhead fishing, our 14 hook will take a 20lb steelhead without any problem! While we're talking of big fish on small hooks, 1995 saw a 20.5lb atlantic salmon caught on our 16 nymph hook. 1996 has seen several sales of size 16 nymph hooks to world reknowned salmon fishers in the USA and Canada, no prizes for guessing what they are after. On an even more serious note, we are now offering sizes 16 and 20 streamer hooks in black, bronze, and silver finish which are specially designed to take a 20lb atlantic salmon or 20lb wild steelhead. The fly will be tied on a single size 16 and/or a size 20 hook, no trailers or other differences.
    A smaller inventory of hooks hasn't limited our ability to tie any size fly. The sproat bend lends itself to some of the smaller flies that the round bend doesn't, but the round bend presents a better profile on the larger flies. Let's think about deep and fast sinking flies for a moment. If you want heavy, the way to get it is by weighting flies, not a heavy wire hook. The XXXX heavy hook won't give the required fast sinking and the heavy wire hook will lose the flexability of heavy, very heavy, or rock hugger if that's what you want. Now let's consider the finish. Since most of the nymphs found on the bottom of a stream are often located in some amount of algae or vegetation, most exhibit some green or olive in their color, however slight. We need an olive-bronze or olive finish on all wet and nymph hooks. A double bronzing or double green coating is necessary to provide a durable finish. For streamers, since nearly all minnows have some flash, and we typically load streamers with tinsel, it seems a natural to finish the streamer hook in a bright silver. Since 6X long is a little clumsy for muddlers and sculpins and 4X long is too short for regular streamers the logical answer is to go to 5X long. All other considerations would apply equally as to wet and nymph hooks. We can tie any size wet, dry, nymph, or streamer. We have good points, good eyes, appropriate color finishes, proper lengths, and no overlapping styles.


    Home Page



    Send E-mail To: President Grahame Maisey