Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Circle Hooks

A post a couple of months ago reguarding the use of barbless hooks in catch and release mentioned circle hooks. What are circle hooks?

Circle hooks are a fairly short shanked hook with a slightly exaggerated c or curved bend. Some brands have a more pronounced bend than others. They have a regular barb. Mustad, Eagle Claw & Gamakatsu all make them and are called circle hooks as opposed to aberdeen, bait holder, sproat, salmon egg, etc.. I've seen them at WalMart, Gander mountain & Cabela's.
They are primarily for live bait. They are a little tricky to get used to using them. For best hook set you have to let the fish tighten up on the line before setting the hook. As the line tightens the hook pulls to the side of the mouth and usu catches in the lip or corner. Fish rarely swallow the hook compared to regular hooks. I like them especially for catch and release when using live bait since with live bait the fish often swallow the hook.

Here's a good article that explains how to use circle hooks. It comes from one of my favorite fishing websites.....

http://www.sportfishingflorida.net/Articles/ReadingRoom/circleup.htm

Wayne

i use circle hooks while carp fishing in the local creek here are a few things ive noticed

not one fish caught (out of about 50) was gut hooked

also it was easier to get hooked up

I recently used a circle hook for catfish on a river bank pole (unattended line). The next morning a nice flathead catfish was securely hooked and patiently waiting to be released without the large lip tears normally associated with bank poles.

Check out this short commentary.

http://home.att.net/~sarasotadon/circle-hook.htm

Circle hooks are commonly used for saltwater fishing as well. In Gulf waters, the hooks are the exclusive choice of anglers who use cut bait to fish for black drum, rays and other bottom feeders.

Mark McDonald
Editor

Notes on use of Circle Hooks & Live Bait - Take notice if your circle hook has an offset. Offset circle hooks have a higher percentage of gut throat and gill hookups. Don't use this style with the offset.

If you have trouble hooking fish on circle hooks try these hints.

1. Snell the hook so the line comes out the eye toward the barb.

2. Don't jerk when you first get a bite. Tighten the line and let the fish set the hook.

3. Make sure you are at an angle to the fish when you tighten the line. You can be behind it, directly over it, or to the side, but unless the line passes out of the fish's mouth at an angle, you won't hook it.

Best chance of a good hook set is for the fish to be ruuning away when you apply pressure.

Bill, thanks for bringing up this subject again. We use circle hooks almost exclusively. They have reduced our immediate catch and release mortality to essentially zero. We have no way to measure long term mortality. We normally use fathead minnows for bait and worms only occassionally. Most of the people fishing our lake have little to no experience.

Some things that I've noticed agree with what Bill said. I look at every hook to make sure the point of the hook lines up exactly with the shank. If it doesn't, the hook will catch deep in the fish's throat. After awhile, the opening of the hook might bend open and you end up with a regular "J" hook. If the point of the hook doesn't line up or the hook opens up, I bend the hook back into shape with a needlenose pliers. We normally use #6 hooks. If we can't find circle hooks, I get #4 eagle claw hooks with leaders and bend them into circle hook shape.

Circle hooks are great for kids using worms for bluegills. For experienced fishermen fishing for bass, they can be extremely frustrating.

Bill you are right about letting the fish hook themselfs it took me a while to figure that out.

They are great my young children can outfish anyone and no one can figure out why. Those hooks will be the down fall off fish.