Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations hook size

My kids are talking me into fishing before i feel that the fish are "really" large enough to catch. My BG and RES are between 3.5 to 5 in max right now after stocking them in january. I have let the kids fish a few times but the mouth size of my fish is at a point that i have to use a rather small size hook so they can bite. If i use a "normal adult size" BG hook they cannot bite it and will continue to pick at the bait until its all gone then the kids dont catch fish and then they loose interest in fishing. Currently i am using an eagle claw size 8 or part #215a-8. My problem is the fish are swallowing the hook so far down that i end up mortally wounding the fish. If i had a pond full of fish i would not worry about that but these are my first stocked fish and i want them around to spawn. I would like a long shanked hook that is easy to get a hold of and make removal more humane. I have been de-barbing these hooks currently. Any thoughts?

Hey RCN

Try a light wire circle hook. A circle hook, even when swallowed, will most times slip right out and into the corner of the fishs' mouth. Don't "SET" the hook, slowly sweep the rod tip and it should result in lip hookups 99% of the time.

Owner, Gamkatsu and other's make light wire circle hooks. Eagle Claw is my bet as they make them all the way down to size 14. Owner to 6 and Gam to 6 or 8. I highly recommend wire circles for panfishing, especially for kids. Hope this helps...

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...&hasJS=true

RCN, as TJ has said circle hooks are the way to go. With your size fish a #6 long shank hook should work, I make my circle hooks by bending the point inward and crushing the barb.
I've caught some pretty small pumpkinseeds with pieces of nightcrawler on a #6 hook.

Alright! Thanks for the help, my kid's thank you (and me too)!

I have had a lot of success using this with EXTREMELY small bluegill.

Size 10 tru turn hooks. I just rip off a piece of nightcrawler and thread it on the hook shank, and have the end of the worm barely cover the hook point. Might want to add a few small split shot to make casting easier.

Caught about 100 small gills in the last two weekends this way. I just made sure I reeled in very slowly to keep the hook moving as a precaution to make sure the hook wasn't in danger of being swallowed. The long shank made hook removal pretty easy.

Out of the roughly 100 gills, 2 of them were pretty tore up / gut hooked. I have also tried using small size 12 salmon egg hooks in red (just bare hook) with some success, but that is a little more difficult to remove.

I highly recommend the tru turn hooks in size 10

http://ttiblakemore.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_32&products_id=214

Size 10 owner mosquito hooks would probably work pretty well also. I tried size 8 but it was a little too big.

I tried circle hooks for the first time 3 weeks ago for bream. I won't use a different hook from here on out.

Love tru turns also for minnow and other bait fishing. Their baitholder hooks are tough to beat. Eagle claw makes a baitholder circle too. For young anglers circles simply cannot be beat - they can even be late on the draw and still hook up and virtually eliminate morts.

The other nice thing about circles with kids is that you can toss out several lines and while you are taking care of the inevitable tangles, you can be passively fishing and letting the fish hook themselves on the other lines. Keeps the action steady for the kids. I even do this trout fishing on the flats with the kids (bigger circles of course)