Hookpoint brings a whole new dimension to fly fishing.  

It allows the user to see (at x6 natural size), and act on important details whose existence was previously not known about – because they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye 

These include:

The hook point

The point of the hook is obviously vital in securing attachment of the angler to the fish.  If it is not at the correct angle, bent-over, or blunt, it will not penetrate the mouth of the fish, especially if it is a bony mouth, such as that of the trout.  As a result, it won’t gain anchor, and the taking fish will slip the hook.  do you get so many takes that this doesn’t bother you ?

It is surprising how often the hookpoint is damaged in normal use, or even when brand new

the hooks shown on the left, weren’t bent to prove the point   These new, size 8 grub hooks were found in the fly-tying box of hookpoint inventor Andrew Worthington. The bent-over points were not obvious with the naked eye, and only came to light when they were viewed through the x 6 lens of hookpoint.  Obviously, they would not help to get a hook-hold in the mouth of the fish.

hookpoint‘s rotatable clamp has been designed carefully to maximise the grip, but also the access to the point.  This enables the point of the hook to be viewed through nearly 360°.  

Simply insert the hook into the clamp by pushing the sprung-loaded clamp knob and releasing, to ease the hook into the double-vee block of the clamp mouth.
When honing the point with the dedicated, grooved ceramic honing rod, it is possible to produce a needle point, rather than a chisel point.  This aids penetration and therefore purchase.  This process is best done with the hook point at the axis of rotation of the clamp.

The hook eye

It is a good idea to inspect closely both the point and eye of the hook before dressing a fly.  It is not unusual to find that the eye has either not been closed properly, or cut badly.  Both of these faults could save your knot slipping out of the eye, or the line being cut or weakened.

this hook eye is likely to let you down if the line is pulled along the line of the shank, as you would find with a long fight with a good fish  This new, size 12 hook was again found by viewing through hookpoint.  The eye is approximately 1.5mm across.

By viewing the eye of the hook through hookpoint‘s crystal-clear, 6-times magnification lens, it will be obvious if the eye is blocked with varnish.  And it will be a cinch to pick it clear, using the dedicated pin tool, stored under hookpoint‘s lid.  This will save the frustration of failing to thread the line through a blocked eye, and valuable fishing time 
Inspection of the hook eye is best carried out with the shank of the hook at the axis of rotation of the clamp.  This will allow the problem-free clipping-off of flies, without trimming the fly dressing 

thread the hook and tie a half-blood knot

Obviously, this can all be done easily whilst viewing through the X6 lens, and with the bright LED on if needed.  Like any task performed whilst viewing through a magnifying lens, it usually takes a little practice.  It can help to judge distances when threading the line through the eye of the hook or a loop, to ensure that your hands are touching, even 2 finger tips.

check and pick knots

the detachable base cup is equipped with soft plastic clips to hold the line across the top, in focus.  This allows close inspection of accidentally-occurring knots, such as ‘wind knots’ or those, such as droppers, that you will rely on when you hook-up.  Simple over-hand knots can reduce the strength of monofil by 50%, so better to spend a little time removing these, by picking or replacing, than regret losing the fish of a lifetime 

inspect spoon-, or kick-samples

The base cup can be used to hold samples from the stomach of captured fish to discover what they have been feeding on.  In addition, ‘kick samples’ are collected from the bed of a river by positioning a fine-meshed net against the river bed whilst standing upstream and scuffing the river bed.  This dislodges the animal life that live amongst the plants, stones and gravel.  By learning about and identifying the invertebrate fish food that lives there, suitable flies can be selected to imitate them.  This river life has become an important ‘barometer’ of the health status of a river.  Anglers who look out for these aquatic invertebrates can be an ‘early-warning system’ in detecting pollutions and therefore protecting the angling environment.

alder fly larva,  Bow Brook, Worcestershire,  UK, October	Olive nymph,  as left	Mayfly nymph,  as left