Circle Hooks

[Flats Rascal]

Do you use them? Why or why not?

Does being "fish friendly" equal a tougher time catchin' 'em?



Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Mr Flats]

I use them sometimes and have had success with them. But I typically do not have the patience for the circle hook set. It is REALLY hard to sit there and let the fish take it before reeling..... I and my young sons like the challenge of setting the regular J type hooks.

[birddog]

I use them offshore when using bait. I believe circle hooks have improved my number of hookups.

[Jumptrout51]

Mr Flats is after my heart. Feel the bite,set the hook.
Circle hooks,feel the bite turn the handle.

[Sea Fox]

They are all I use offshore. I cant remember the last fish that was hooked in the gullet. Hook up ratio is excelent and if I miss the fish its usually my fault, jerking or not letting the fish turn before realing.

[Barhopr]

only hooks I use offshore are circle hooks and snelled octopus style hooks. Doing a Bill Dance hook set in 100' of water with mono don't do much.

[mjsigns]

Ditto What JT51 said...

[EddieJoe]

Do you use them? Why or why not?

Does being "fish friendly" equal a tougher time catchin' 'em?



Thanks in advance for your responses.

Circle hooks work well, when you get over the long standing habit of jerking to set the hook. Even on the flats, circles work nicely on trout with light line when it is hard to get a hook set you like. Also, no gut hooking, which is a good thing.

EJ

[GIT-R-WET]

These are the only ones I use.
Daiichi D84Z Circle Chunk Light Bleeding Bait Hook
Owner MUTU Circle Light Hooks

[bman]

How about a circle hook on a Trotline or Bush Hook?
It sounds like it would make sense- they just pull away slowly...
Anyone ever tried that?

[jsuber]

They don't come on a jig head, so I guess you could say I don't use them (Meaning I sling lures)

[grim reeler]

For any type of live or cut bait, they are great. Better hook up averages and no swallowed hooks. They work very well for unattended pin fish drifted behind the boat, and are even pretty effective on gulps under a ct.

I hated them until I got the hook set beat out of me. "Point the rod tip down and slowly reel" is much easier said than done.

I still throw plenty of things that need a hookset, but for what they are made to do, circle hooks excel.

[Big Bend Brian]

Grouper fishing is my passion. I use them for grouper fishing exclusively. Offshore, it seems I spend a fair amount of time helping my crew (often times inexperienced young anglers) with removing fish, baiting, re-rigging, catching more bait, anchoring, and other chores. While doing these chores I’ll put my rod in the rod holder and that circle hook fishes for me while I’m attending to others. When I do get a fish on I can jump on the rod and usually get her in the boat. When I am fishing without distractions and actively fishing the hook up rate using circles is outstanding-much greater than J hooks (one of my good grouper fishing friends uses J hooks).

As another perspective, when I was doing ultrasonic telemetry work (3 years) with gag grouper for UF Fisheries and for my own graduate thesis I would use SCUBA and a short handline to select the groupers I wanted to tag. Once I found a fish of the correct size I would offer it a large squid on a 2 foot handline (beating back the smaller gag & triggerfish). In the beginning I used J hooks but the gags would take the bait and turn away and most of the time the squid would be stripped off and the fish would not get hooked. Once I changed to circle hooks the success rate was almost 100%. The gag would take the squid, turn with it, and be promptly hooked without my having to set the hook. Ever since that I’ve used circle hooks.

From a conservation standpoint, I’d add that I’ve only seen 2 grouper with a circle hook hooked in the throat-they almost always hook in the corner of the mouth. Again, based on another couple of years on another grouper tagging project I can tell you that those gag hooked in the throat with J hooks did not do very well in our recovery tanks awaiting tagging. Those that were hooked in the mouth did just fine.

Brian

[birddog]

Thats good info, Brian. Thanks.