I Need More Room In My Hook Drawer

About a month ago I asked a question...that question was did Sylvester Nemes ever create a soft hackle fly. I received a couple of responses and they both they were basically the same. The only flies that he created were Syl's Midge and a salmon fly called Salars Nemesis. The background was sketchy with a photo of the fly on the dust cover of a book authored by Nemes, a photo that sort of created more questions. Well I managed to find a fly tied by Nemes and I feel confident that I can now tie it properly...not so fast Alan. The color of the body material is somewhat different from his original. Now this could be from natural aging, or it's a color that he had dyed himself.

Now what this created was a quest to bring these salmon flies down to size to enable them to be fished for trout. I have over the last weeks tied a few of these flies on smaller hooks. My search for the perfect hook has been narrowed down to three. I tried to keep both the traditional salmon hook but finding a small size was a challenge. I selected two brands, the Partridge N2 low water salmon hook size 10...and the Saber 7055 size 8. Another hook that has worked is the TMC 200R size 8. I have fished a couple of these flies but an actual true test won't be done until the weather warms and conditions better.

Salars Nemesis tied on a Partridge hook.

Mickey Finn variant tied on a Saber hook.

Another variant, this is a Royal Coachman.

A no name fly, tied on a salmon hook.

A very subdued colored salmon fly tied on the TMC 200R hook.

Here are the three hooks that I used in the patterns above. Top hook, Partridge N2 size 10...Middle Saber 7055 size 8...Bottom, TMC 200R size 8.

Fun times are ahead. I can't wait.