Why Your Size 16 Isn't Really a Size 16

Fulling Mill has evolved from being ‘hooks only’ to a wide product range. How is the feedback from top tyers shaping product development?

Steve Carew: Originally, hooks, materials, and beads were about securing supply for our own fly production. Many suppliers were unreliable. To keep production consistent, we started sourcing materials ourselves. Once we did that, we realized we had genuinely good products—often better than what was available—so we began selling them.

Now we work closely with top tyers — such as Tom Rosenbauer, Tim Flagler, Cheech Pierce and Curtis Fry — and they actively feed ideas back to us: colors, materials, thread choices. What started as internal support has become a collaborative development pipeline.

Dominic Lentini: A great example is a video I filmed with Devin Olsen before the World Fly Fishing Championships. He's incredibly analytical — tracking hook-ups, landing percentages, hook styles across scenarios. That data, combined with feedback from anglers like Pat Weiss in Pennsylvania or tiers in Colorado, gives us a spectrum of use cases. We don't average opinions, we weigh what matters most for the everyday angler.

Competitive anglers are ultra-specific and analytical. But your average small-stream angler just wants confidence in their hook. How do you balance that?

Steve: Wire gauge is the clearest example. Competition anglers fish ultra-light rods and tippet—they need thin wire hooks that set easily. Most anglers aren't doing that. They want stronger hooks that inspire confidence on bigger fish. We design for both, but competition anglers are a small percentage. The majority are everyday anglers, and hooks must suit them.

Dom: That's why many of our hooks come in standard and heavy wire versions. A spring-creek angler fishing 8x needs finesse. Someone fishing heavy flows out west needs durability. Giving options is key.

So, out of that, are hooks still the starting point, or does the problem come first?

Steve: The problem comes first. Dom had fish feeding on spinners in fast water on his favorite river. Light wire hooks weren't an option, so he used a much heavier wire barbless hook in our range. But the issue then was getting it to float and present properly. Problem → hook → fly design.

What's the development timeline for a hook?

Steve: About two years. Drawings to order might take six months. Production takes 12–18 months. We don't get samples. Hook factories run nonstop. Setup is expensive. Everything is designed from drawings and measurements. Hooks are refined over multiple production runs based on feedback. Certain sizes are "prime." Others need tweaking—gape, wire gauge, point angle—especially at extreme sizes.

Dom: A great example is our Jig Force Short. People say it looks oversized.

Steve: Visually, yes—because of the wide gape. But the shank length is correct. Until you physically hold the hook, you don't fully know how it'll feel. We now build in extra size checks before launch. There's no industry standard—sizing is always relative.

Dom: Perception matters. If anglers feel a hook runs big, we need to explain what they're seeing and guide them accordingly.

How do you launch new hooks without neglecting best-sellers? And do old hooks get phased out?

Dom: We don't get samples. When hooks land, that's often my first time seeing them. Shipping timelines vary, so marketing stays flexible. We highlight new hooks initially, then fold them into broader barbed/barbless campaigns. Existing best-sellers remain central.

Steve: Discontinuation is simple: does it sell? If not, it goes. We avoid overlap—developing a hook takes too long to duplicate something we already have.

How important is retail feedback?

Steve: Critical. One consumer request is anecdotal. Retailers seeing consistent demand—like asking for size 24 hooks—drives action.

Does selling flies vs. materials compete?

Steve: We're happy either way. Ideally, customers can buy the fly or the full material list—that's where we want to go.

The Takeaway

The next time you're standing at a fly shop comparing hooks, remember: that size 16 in your hand might measure differently than the size 16 sitting next to it. Wire gauge, gape width, shank length, bend style—all of these variables shift between manufacturers, and none of them are standardized.

What matters most, according to Carew and Lentini, is understanding what you're actually buying. A wide-gape jig hook will look bigger than a standard dry fly hook of the same size. A 2X-heavy wire hook will feel more substantial than a 1X-fine. And a hook designed for competition Euro nymphing will behave very differently from one built for general-purpose nymphing.

Fulling Mill's approach—rooted in decades of fly production, informed by competitive anglers and everyday fishers alike, and refined over a two-year development cycle—is to design hooks that solve specific problems first, then worry about the numbering system second.

As Steve puts it: "The problem comes first. Then the hook. Then the fly design."