Hooks. I have come to the possible realization that you can tie a better more uniformed looking fly with the proper hook. And it may take a slight difference in the shank length. Which in my mind makes a hook a very important part of the tying materials used.
This idea finally sank in just last night and today because I tied a fly I call The Saint last night on a medium weight standard length shank and it turned out ok. So today I was tying more and I just didn't like the body length of the fly. I then looked for a similar hook in my hook box and found a 1XL and used that to how I like it.
Personally I like it better, but that's just my humble opinion because I'm still learning the in's and out's of tying flies.
I have seen people tying their own variations of the same fly on different hooks, so I don't think there's a rule where it says you must use hook XXX for this fly and hook YYY for this other fly. Is there a rule?
But this is what I see in these two similar hooks. The first photo has the standard length hook.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/fTRCtYmP/20201125-200444.jpg)
This is the hook that has the 1XL shank.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/8kKWY9fy/20201126-123520.jpg)
It looks to me the abdomen in the first photo is too stubby and thick. The fly in the second photo has a better tapered, slightly longer abdomen which allowed me to have an easier time with the thorax and hackle.
Am I on to something here, or do I need to change something to use the standard length hook?
Looking forward to all of your thoughts on this.