Back again due to a brain fart. It came to me in a mindless moment as to why I do not use a Turle knot on my trout hooks. This would go better if I had artistic abilities .
Take a close look at the eye structure of the typical down eye trout hook. Notice the eye is not welded. To shape the eye, the forward portion of the hook shank is simply wrapped around a tiny mandrel and bumped up against the shank as the circle is completed. That end of the wire, where it should be touching the long portion of the shank, can be quite sharp.
![[Linked Image]](https://s25.postimg.cc/m0rduubcf/Hook.jpg)
With a Turle knot, ones leader is doing a partial loop around the long portion of the shank and the two stands forming the loop then pass through the eye to the front and into ones actual knot. This configuration is pulling a portion of the leader (right side of right image) into that realm where the sharp end of the wire has returned to and is supposedly touching the shank.
A clinch will usually grasp the bottom or forward most portion of the eye thus avoiding potential cutting. With its single loop through the eye though there's a bit more stress on the line and knot. Eliminate the cutting potential, and the Turle is a superior knot.
This came to me when I used to employ a lot of streamers fishing a tight line with across and down swings of the fly. They were often lost to heavy hits with what I thought should be tolerable shock. Up eye salmon/steelhead hooks get past this by shaping the eye and then running about 1/8 inch of remaining wire parallel to the shank toward the bend. That design eliminates the sharp edge/leader contact.
If the eyes of our standard trout hooks were welded, the issue would go away. Likely the price of hooks would double though.
