What size hooks for 1st clousers?

[bass3six]

What size hooks for a 1st attempt at tying clousers? Let's assume these flies will be for the 1st schoolies which show up at the beginning of the season.

[bassman]

My small clousers for the Cape I tye on 1/0 hooks...2/0 is my all around favorite and a tye a few 3/0 large Yak clousers....I think any one of these hooks would work fine for schoolies...But to answer you question I would start with 1/0....Jeff

[teezer]

When you are tying clousers you need to be careful about matching the hook size with the propper dumbell eye size. You want the clouser to ride hook point up so the eyes have to have enough weight to turn the hook over. You can always overweight your clouser but then you run the risk of casting problems. You might also hit the tip of your rod with the clouser as you are casting and then you will have a broken rod. My clousers are tyed on Daiichi 2546 hooks and I match the size hook with the right size eye. A 1/0 hook gets a medium sized eye, a #2 get a small eye. Just my way of doing things.

[NJCoastFlyFish]

I'm just going to say something about making sure the hook rides up. To en sure that it will ride the right way you put twice as much bucktail on top than the bottom. So if you have a chart white clouser you put twice as much CHART because the bucktail will kinda float it up, i guess that is what will happen.

[mikef]

You have received some excellent info on tying clousers for early cape fishin. One way to be sure that your Clousers ride with the proper orientation is to use Eagle Claw #413 60 degree offset Jig hooks. You can then vary the weight of the eye to give you the proper sink rate rather than using very heavy eyes or loading the top wing with a lot of bucktail. In this style hook I'm using #2 and 1/0. If you are trying to use regular shanked hooks, you will have to use heavier eyes for Stainless hooks than the zinc plated. The stainless are heavier. Its hard to use enough weight to get a 3/0 stainles to ride right and still be able to cast it easily. By the way Bob Clouser has started to use the EC 413 hooks.

[rel]

<FONT color=black face=Verdana,Geneva size=2>mikef- Where did you get the EC#413 hooks? The only place I've found them has been a catalog out of New York. Are there any places in RI that carry them? rel</FONT>

[mikef]

rel,
I got my EC413 hooks from Terminal Tackle Company in New York. I never bothered to try to find the hooks locally.
They are sort of a specialty item. You are probably better ordering them from a catalog than trying to find them at tackle shops.

[rel]

<FONT color=black face=Verdana,Geneva size=2>mikef- Thanx. That was the catalog I was referring to. Another place if they send me their catalog this year might be Janns Netcraft because they carry molds for jig making and the hooks used. rel</FONT>