I was put onto these hooks by Jan Siman, a world-class Czech nymph fisher and tyer in the international circuit. They are the perfect shape for Czech nymphs, and serve the purpose very well. There is also a barbless variety of these hooks, to each their own, I prefer barbs, but I realize and respect the need for certain applications where barbless hooks are indeed the better option; the barbs on these hooks mash down very easily as well. As for tying on these hooks, they have a very slight curve to the shank portion, which leads straight into the eye without any discernible transition or bend just posterior to the eye's loop. For that reason, I find it very important to be conscious of overcrowding of the eye region, as the thread will tend to "jump off" the eye of the hook if the eye is crowded. If you leave appropriate space, I've not had problems with this, but it is very easy to misjudge and overcrowd the eye when using these hooks, particularly because the eye does not have a bend just rear of the loop of the eye itself. So if (and when) you get these hooks, just be cautious about crowding the eye. Also, the hook sizes appear, at face value, to run small. They aren't small, mind you, but they are sized to the hook gap and not the shank length. Because the shank is short, and the gape wide, the result is that you look at the hook and say "Gee, that's a 14? Looks like a 16 to me..." and so on. Don't fool yourself in this regard, it really is a 14 in the above example. Your eyes are playing tricks on you, due to the curve and shape of the hook. I hope this gave you some of my experiences with these hooks - overall I find them very sharp, sturdy, with very few (if any) "badly formed" hooks per pack. These are my go-to Czech nymph hooks, at least, for those coming from the USA vendors.
