wrke, ghillie, and Black Francis,
You guys are correct, it is the Daiichi 2161 with the up loop eye, and not the 2151 (the 2161 and 2151 are the same hook, the difference is one has a straight eye and the other a turned up eye, and I constantly find myself calling them the wrong model number as a result). However, all Alec (I appologize to anyone who might be confused by my calling him Alec, I've known him for 14 years on a personal basis) did was re-lable the 2161 with the same odd size hook numbers he uses on his AJ Spey Hooks and had Daiichi make them for him in some finishes other than black. Alec had to buy quite a few thousand of each of the other colors in each of the sizes to have Daiichi do this for him.
In fact, myself and several others from the area who know Alec (Russ Miller, Bob Arnold, Steve Gobin, and several others) suggested to Alec that he market the 2161 as one of his hooks since it appeared to us that west coase steelheaders would buy them only if they had Alec's name associated with them as far back as 1994. We also suggested Alec market the Veverka Low-water hook as an AJ hook, Alec decided to do this after he spoke with Veverka about it and he came up with the name Low-water Dee for them. And all of us were very glad when Alec started marketing both hooks.
The size relationship between Alec's Steelhead Irons and the Daiichi 2161 is easy. Alec sizeed then in sequence from #3 to #9 instead of the unusual Daiichi sizing of #1,2,4,and 6 (How many of us are familiar with #1 hooks?). Thus, a 2161 #1, becomes an AJ Steelhead Iron #3, and so on. Alec did this to make it easier on the tyer and fisherman. The #9 (Alec's size designation) is my favorite hook to tie my friend (and Alec's friend) Bob Arnold's Spade on.
Alec also markets Bob Veverka's Low Water Hook (Daiichi 2131) as the AJ Low water Dee hook. It is the identical hook, just re-labeled by Alec and sized in odd number sequence instead of the usual even number sizing used by Daiichi. Alec simply uses odd sizes in sequence starting with #3, rather than the even sizes Daiichi uses. Thus a Veverka Low-water Hook (Daiichi 2131 #2) becomes an AJ Low-water Dee #3, and so on.
Wrke,
As you can see, you were right on about Alec calling them a different size. The AJ Steelhead Irons in 3,5,7,and 9 are the same as the Daiichi 2161 in 1,2,4, and 6. Alec using the odd number sizing was for marketing and to keep consistency with the sizing of his Spey Hooks, as well as to make it less confusing than having a hook designated as #1.