Today, finding pre-bent hooks is a challenge. Not to fear, grab a pair on needle-nose pliers and bend them to work. It isn’t necessary to put hooks in a vise before bending, however if it makes it easier for you, go for it. Key considerations should be taken for bending the eye-portion of the hook back along the hook shank – keep the point of the hook and eye in the same plane. In addition, most will bend the eye back too far. Try not to exceed bending the eye back more than eight (8) degrees or so. On a standard size hook, the eye and 25% of the shank should be bent back. This will allow a nice cradle for bead-chain eyes and some room to secure bucktail or other wing material. Blend different colors of bucktail to make things more creative. Feel free to browse our selection of bend-back flies for further examples.

The featured images below are examples of how simple bend-back fly construction can be. Securing a set of bead-chain eyes and some bucktail will make a fly like this complete. I like to add a few strands of crystal flash while I’m at it – let your creativity run wild.