To the point!

Hooks....you gotta have em to tie your materials on too, unfortunately these days manufacturers seem to think that all pike hooks should all be similar to one another in gape and shaft length. You know I've been with the Partridge Team now for a couple of years and I'm sure they read this blog from time to time so they know my view and where I stand with regards to their pike hooks. Their Partridge Universal predator hook 4/0 is a decent hook, and I say this because its super sharp which in my eyes is its strongest feature, but I personally feel that they could produce this hook with a much shorter hook shaft and shorten it by at least 10mm. Cutting down on weight and surface area to tie your materials onto. The more surface area a fly tier has, especially novice pike fly tiers, the more they will use. Okay.....good for material manufacturers but not very practical in the long run.

So lets take these Sakuma 540 Mantas which were kindly sent to me by Mikko Blomqvist at "The Nordic Angler" They look amost identical to the Partridge Universal predator X strong hook above, except are ever so slightly thicker. Whether this will make them stronger than the partridge I dont know but I'll be using three of these on the hooked flies in my challenge this year as well as three Partridge and see what results I come up with if any!

They are a popular hook here in Scandinavia and Mikko is selling them in his shop "The Nordic Angler"for a very reasonable price of €3,30 + postage for 10 hooks. I just wish these hooks came with a shorter shaft....then they would double up as a very good tube fly hook as well....Food for thought hook manufacturers!!!