Hook Sizing

Trouble I am finding is that hooks sizing these days is meaningless.
In the old days if I bought say a size 10 I would get a size 10 now a size 10 will any thing from an old size 14 to an old size 6. I bought some so called size 4 trebles but they are nearer to an old size 8. A bit like clothes I can wear anything from a Large to an XXL depending on where I buy it. It now seem the same with hooks.
What happens on those waters where the rules state that you must use a certain size hook.

In days gone by the accepted universal hook size scale was the old Redditch Sizes stemming from the manufacture of hooks back in the 19th century in Redditch pioneered by Allcock's who started from using the skills from the needle making business in 1803

For many generations the Redditch Scale was the only one used by UK hook manufacturers, but as the business came more global then different manufacturers developed their own scales with many differing criteria.

Unless venue rules include a reverence to the scale used in defining maximum hook sizes then their rules are virtually unenforceable.

steve2 said:

Trouble I am finding is that hooks sizing these days is meaningless.
In the old days if I bought say a size 10 I would get a size 10 now a size 10 will any thing from an old size 14 to an old size 6.....

Click to expand...

....And that's before we start getting the variations on size - a 'Long Shank', 'Wide Gape' 14 can look more like a size 8!

As PJ comments - the sizing was originally based on standards set up in the pins and needles business - where sizing was based on 'wire gauge'. Nowadays we seem to have lost this connection with hooks being rated as 'heavy duty' as well as the LS/WG complication! mg:

Hooks are not an item that can be bought without first seeing them. It's as though manufacturers have someone to guess sizes, someone who's obviously blind.

One of my pet hates.

Infact I've just bought an organiser to tidy up bits of tackle in the garage, I was going to put same numbered hooks together, I've actually put hooks together that look the same size.