Circle Hooks

[flyfishermannh]

I have read through much of what is being talked about. Yet there is very little said about CIRCLE HOOKS.

I fish with a former NH Game Warden and he swears by them I have been fishing stripers with him since 1996 and this year I have tied and used flies made with Circle Hooks almost entirely.

They are good and hold fish of all sizes and, yet, are easy to remove from their mouths.

Any comments?

[dcomte]

Started using circle hooks a few years ago fishing for bonito and albies. They are all I use in saltwater now. I also use them for freshwater streamer patterns. I use mustad c71ss and mutu circles. Crimp the barb if you have trouble removing hooks, it is not needed. Just remember don't set the hook and keep stripping until you feel the weight of the fish.

[Capt.ChrisLembo]

I use Owner Mutu Light as I mostly live bait and the thin wire helps to keep the bait alive longer. I have not had any issues with breakage on these light wire hooks. 4/0 have caught 45 pound Kingfish and Amberjacks and Grouper around the same size. I will switch to cheaper Mustad live bait bronze if I am getting cut-offs and can't use wire (shy fish). The circle's are much more expensive and you don't want to give a $.50 hook to toothy critters.

Don't set the hook. Just reel tight.

I would say 95% of the time it sets perfect in the corner of the mouth. The other 5% are very aggressive fish that swall the bait way too deep.

[rollwithit]

I like circle hooks with toothy critters, like mackerel. I can get more strikes, because I will not use wire leaders.

[The GAFFMAN]

Gamagatsu"s........ Gamagatsu"s......fish On!

[boba]

Mustad makes inexpensive, nice, 3x long circles for fly tying. About 40% of my hooks are now circles with the barbs bent down. Lefty Kreh's trick of laying the down to demonstrate that barbs aren't needed with flies works with regular hooks and even better with circles. Circles are fair easier when you plan to release fish; even when catching micro schoolies which definetly qualify as eager, you get a have a much lower chance of gut-hooking the fish. Almost everything I've caught on a circle, including fluke, have been hooked in the side of the mouth. One point: remember to use a strip strike and don't lift the rod until you are sure the fish is on.

[bdowning]

I have yet to master the use of circle hooks, so I've taken to crimping the barbs on standard hooks. It still doesn't solve the gut hooking problem but it does make it easier to remove hooks that aren't as deeply inhaled.

-bd

[boba]

BD - the strip strike (stripping line against the pressure with your line hand and not lifting the rod until you really feel the fish on solidly) is the key. It works the same way with bait or jigs. You probably will miss some at first as old habits assert themselves (and I always have to fight to remember which type of hook I have on. It's hard to break old habits.). However, when the fish are really hitting, you save a lot of fish and a lot of unhooking time by using circles.

Last weekend, I didn't put a circle on and spent a lot of time wasted in removing conventional hooks in addition to damaging fish; today, I went to a circle hook fly right away and hooked maybe ten more fish in the time I saved, and a real plus, didn't have any hooked deeper than the lip or the side of the mouth and didn't slash my fingers up on the micro twirlers.

Btw, keep on crimping those barbs. My buddy drove a hook through his ear today when a sudden wind gust threw his cast off (he is an experienced and excellent caster). It was easy to pull it out and caused little blood. Of course, I did tease him about using the bloody fly to chum the waters.

A couple of years ago, I was double hauling for distance when I managed to drive a 3/0 Clouser into the back of my casting arm right down to the bend in a gusty wind at Halibut Pt. It was easy to pull out and didn't bleed much. I had one heck of a bruise from the impact of a maximum speed cast but no other aftereffects, and I didn't have to stop fishing. Similar injuries to other friends using barbed hooks have resulted in trips to the hospital and an end to the fishing.