If a person is using live bait, then I highly recommend the use of circle hooks. We have had many posts on this in the past.
We have very heavy fishing pressure on our 4-acre lake. Before using circle hooks, we would often find fish with 1-4 hooks in their mouths where we had cut off the leaders on swallowed hooks. Now, with the use of circle hooks, 99.5% of the fish are caught in the lip. When a fish has swallowed a hook, we usually find that the hook had been straightened.
It takes a while to get used to using circle hooks. You don't set the hook, just let the fish move away and hook itself.
