Many years ago on a fishing trip I had the mishap of sinking the barb of a fairly large hook in the palm of my hand while the fly was parked in the hook keeper, and it required medical attention. In honesty, it wasn't the hook keeper's fault,  but rather my own youth driven carelessness. From that day on, I vowed that I would never use one again, even if it was present on the rod that I was using at the time. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a hook keeper, but the safety aspect has always deterred me from using one. Most if not all of the rods that I have built over the years, I have omitted hook keepers in their various forms. If a customer requested one, I would tell them my story and strongly encourage them to find some other way to park their fly. I finally started to think outside of the box and came up with a couple of new ideas. Although they are a bit different from the norm, they have provided me a bit of a "safety net" and enable me to retain some of my youthful carelessness.

   For lack of a better name, I call the first one the "McKeeper". It is a brass tube mounted in the forward part of the grip that accepts flies with the barbs as large as a size 4. On larger flies, from size 8 and up, the point of the hook will be very slightly exposed, but never will the barb become a threat. Another nice feature is that on dry flies the hackle doesn't get crushed on the shaft of the rod. When not in use, you don't even notice it because it fits flush with the wood. This keeper can only be used with the grip style as shown in the pictures.

   The other style hook keeper I named the McKbuttkeeper. This one is simply the correct sized hole drilled in the butt cap , the cap is then mounted to the rod and then the hole is drilled a small distance into the reel seat barrel, the brass tubing glued, inserted in the hole and finished off. With this one, not even the point is exposed, and when not in use, barely noticed.

   While neither of these replace the look of the traditional hook keepers, these serve the same purpose to park a fly, but are unique, and safer.