This will come as a shock to some people, but I was once a small kid! Way back then, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and 4oz rudd were dreamt about on an almost daily basis, I used to tie all my own spade-end hooks. By hand, too.
I’m not sure if it was because I got older and lazier, or because my fingers got fatter, but I stopped doing them by hand and used a Drennan Hook Tyer for many years. It was definitely laziness that progressed me to the level I reached next, that of being a hooks-to-nylon-user.
As I was tying on another new hooklink a while back, I got to thinking how daft I was. Life would have been a whole lot simpler, and neater, if I’d just tied a hook on the end! So, as my fingers hadn’t got any thinner with age, I went out to look for a hook tyer, and stumbled upon the appropriately-named Fladen Hook Tyer.
I’m not going to write pages and pages on a piece of tackle that costs less that £3, but I will say this; a hook tyer is one item of tackle that will pay for itself time and time again!
Instructions are included with the Fladen Hook Tyer. Basically, you insert a spade-end hook into the end, tighten the nut slightly, twist your line and place the tail end of it where shown, undo the nut and pull the line. Voila! You’ve just tied your thumb to the cat! No, seriously, it’s simple and you’ll have tied a professional hooklength that you can then bore the whole family with. I know I did. I’d even go as far as saying that it’s one of those things that’s easier to do than it is to explain.
The Fladen Hook Tyer works slightly differently to the old Drennan Hook Tyer that, since starting to write this review, I’ve found lurking in an old tackle box. Having had a look around the internet, it seems to be similar to the “Matchman Hook Tyer” I’ve seen elsewhere. I don’t think there’s really a ‘better’ one, to be honest. They’re both pretty simple, once you’ve tied a hook or two.
If you want to order a Fladen Hook Tyer, please click here to visit the TackleBargains website. You’ll find plenty of cheap hooks there to keep you busy, too!
Elton Murphy, 2009
