Tied this Hare's Ear up for a particularly good honey hole where hooking a fish is almost unfair. I was interested in the hook set, hold and removal of these vintage hooks. The fly was dead drifted under an indicator and the fish hit pretty hard (no soft sips). My impression based on 4 hook ups.
Fish 1 - Stayed on the hook for a few seconds and shook off
Fish 2 - On the hook until it jumped ( a few seconds)
Fish 3 - Lots of head shaking, on the hook for 20 seconds and landed
Fish 4 - Lots of jumping and head shaking, on the hook for 30 seconds and landed
After losing the first two fish, extra pressure was needed for a proper hook set ( a bit more than a standard hook). Fighting the fish was similar to fighting one on a standard barbless hook. Releasing the fish was met with a tad more resistance but far better than a barbed hook.
Overall, these are a decent design with fish that hit fairly hard.
They were discontinued back in the 80's ( I believe) with a bad reputation for hook setting.
Cheers, MT