From my experience the hooks don't rust out as fast as people think. I wonder if the "gold" hooks ever do.
I once had a taxidermy student for the weekend and his dad tagged along. A really nice pair of individuals. I let the dad fish the pond I had at the time with a fly rod for bluegills. I forgot to tell him about the aggressive large bass in the pond. Anyway one snapped him off and I could see the that bass every day when I went down to feed with a popper stuck in the side of his mouth. One day as I was contemplating if the hook was going to rust out, it suddenly floated to the surface. Upon examination It had not rusted at all and apparently just worked its way loose.
On a funny note a few years ago I let a couple guys fish my pond. One of him tied his own flies but he rubbed me the wrong way as he was quite the moocher. We had gone fishing before and he never paid for anything and was too lazy to keep fish as he didn't want to clean them. I didn't go fishing with him again. Anyway a trout broke him off and he lost his fly which was a fancy one with big eyes etc. He told me when the fly showed up again he would like it back as it was an expensive one to tie.
About a week later a friend hooked a fish and sure enough the fancy fly was still in his mouth. He said he really liked the fly and wondered if he could keep it. He'd like to see if he could tie one like it. I said, "sure."
The moocher guy once asked me if that fly ever showed up again. I said, "nope."
