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The Lip Hook Fly System
( THIS ARTICLE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION )
Fly rod silicone chenille eel
The Lip Hook System is a manner of adding hooks to your flies that is based on the system that I designed for the Banjo Minnow. My partner and I received a utility patent for the system which also included the use of a corkscrew or "screwlock" to hold the soft plastic bait on the hook. I sold out my shares in the company in which I served as vice president in 1996, and I have no association or contact with the company, but you can still order the whole kit or just the hooks at their website at www.banjominnowparts.com
Banjo Minnow
With the Lip Hook System for flies, you do not need the screwlock unless you want to use soft plastics on your fly rod. The tiny round latex rubber weedguards ( basicly orthodontal braces) are also optional, but they are very effective at keeping weeds off the hook point in all types of heavy cover. However, you may want to invest in some various diameters and thicknesses of the latex rings (orthodontal braces), especially for the various sizes and styles of the hooks that you may wish to use. The Banjo Minnow Kit usually offers only one size weedguard for the three different hook sizes in the Kit. Talk to your local orthodontist. Mine sold me a lifetime supply of various sizes for a few bucks. The brand I like is Creatures of the Sea Orthodontic Elastics (1-800-999-3161) . My favorite style & size is the Manatee / Heavy 3/16 inch.
Shiner and Shad Wraps swim vertically
This Flat Shad swims and sinks horizontally like a wounded baitfish
Although the Banjo hooks were designed specificly to hold the rubber weedguards in position, you do not always need to use a weedguard, and you do not necessarily need to use the Banjo hooks. There are alternatives even if you do want to use the weedguards. You can use Kahle style hooks of any size you need, and they come in a wide range of sizes. Some manufaturers use heavier or lighter guage wire for this style of hook. So, you can choose a hook best geared to the species you are chasing. Heavier guaged wire on some hooks will help your flies to sink quicker and lighter guaged hooks will give your flies that weightless suspended nature that is often so deadly. You can start with light wire hooks and add weight with lead wire wrapped around the shank as you discover that you need to get deeper quicker. If you are fishing with a heavier flyrod for heavier fish, you may also need heavier guage hooks to prevent straightening the hooks during a tough battle. With lighter flyrods, you can get away with using lighter guage hooks for bigger fish if you play your fish carefully. To use the weedguards on standard Kahle style hooks, you simply tie in the weedguard to the hook's eye when you tie on the hook. However, you will have to use a pair of needlenose pliers to straighten the bend in the hook to make the hook point actually point toward the hook eye. You may also need to make a slight bend to orient the hook point downward so that the tip of the point is below, between and protected by the two strands of rubber latex. Many of the circle hooks will also work well with the rubber latex weedguards without the required bending if you tie them on at the hook eye. Another hook style, the Mustad 91768 which comes in sizes 1/0 through 5/0 works especially well without any bending, and it attaches naturally in the same manner as the genuine Banjo Minnow hooks. They are especially useful on such patterns as my Fly Rod FROGs when they are made for the Lip Hook System rather than using a standard wired weedless hook in the belly of the body of the FROG. The various sizes of the Mustad design can be used in place of the largest #1 Banjo Minnow hook. These larger hook styles also work well on other large FoamSkin Fly designs made for the Lip Hook System such as the FoamSkin Wide Slider pictured in the photo below.
FoamSkin Wide Slider
With the Lip Hook System, the actual fly body is not attached or tied to the hook, but instead, to a separate shaft with an eye through which the hook point and barb must pass. The fly body then swings freely by the eye on the hooks bend. There are a number of choices that you can use for the fly body's "eye-shaft". Depending on the diameter of the eye on the eye-shaft and the width of the barb of the hook chosen, you might need an O-ring to hold the fly from flying off the hook while casting or fighting a fish. You can also use a 1/8th inch hole puncher from an office supply store to cut out small rubber, latex, sheet foam or silicone discs to use in place of the O-rings. They work just as well, and they are easier to obtain. You have various choices of materials to use for eye-shafts. You can use the eye and shank of a standard hook by cutting off the hook at the beginning of the bend. A great ready made alternative is found in the jewelry section of craft stores. Jewelry crafters commonly use a wire eye-shaft product that bends very easily for attaching beads etc. My favorite solution is a polypropylene locking fastener that can be razor trimmed down to an eye-shaft. Since the polypropylene is somewhat softer and more forgiving, it can accommodate many more sizes and styles of hooks. In addition, the shaft has a series of bumps along the shaft that give the appearance of a skeleton. These bumps allow you to attach body materials with less likelihood that they will slip off the shaft. They allow epoxies and glues to get a better anchor along the shaft.
LipHook System Ice chenille deerhair divers
PoxyFlash Spoon Fly
Standard Kahle Hook with the weedguard tied to the eye
As you can see from the examples of flies shown, the Lip Hook System can be adapted to almost any style of fly. In fact, your previously tied flies can be converted to the Lip Hook System by cutting off the shank of standard flies before the bend of the hook and matching the eye of the shank to a hook that will pass through the eye. This system has some distinct advantages over standard hooking sytems. To me, one of the most strategical advantages is the superior soft weedguard. Also, for most species of fish it is a better fish hooking system because the hook is up front where it contacts the fish mouth parts first during the hook setting process. Most fish "inhale" the flies, and most fish aim for the eyes which are most often located up front. Often, you can use smaller lighter guage hooks even on larger flies, so, you can easily set the hook even on lighter fly rods. You might decide that you want to use the same fly, but you may want to change your hook to more efficiently hook a given species. Or, you might want a heavier hook to sink more efficiently. In this case, you only have to tie only one fly but you get multiple high efficiency use from the fly in varying situuations for multiple species. Sometimes, you will own a really great fly for a long time before a fish takes it away from you. Often, the hook will become rusted or wear out before the fly is worn out. With this system, you can easily change the hook. And if a fish breaks your line, you will often get your floating flies returned to you when they pop back up to the surface after separating from the hook. Also, when that fish breaks your line, you can feel confident that a non stainless steel hook will rust out of the mouth very quickly, especially in saltwater.
LipHook System Ice chenille deerhair divers
One of the most annoying aspects of changing flies too often is that a new leader can become quickly out of balance, and the lighter tippet area may need to be replaced. With this system, you can change flies as often as you like without affecting the leader. You can go quickly from a bottom bouncing fly to a topwater floater, and you can keep a whole assortment of flies directly in your chest pocket without fear of getting hooked or ruining your shirt. Very convenient.
Some of my own fly patterns are now designed specifically to be used with this system and this system actually makes them much more easy to tie (see the PoxyFlash Spoon Fly photo above, also see the article The Shiner Wrap Flies ).