circle hooks

[JEWIENEWIE]

when and why are circle hooks used and what bait are best suited to them. Cheeers
Jewie

[Blackened]

G'day
I use my circles (gamagatsu octopus circle in the 5/0) for inshore reef fishing. Will fish cuttle fish, squid and any bait really off of them. Why??? they dont gut hook fish.
Dave

[Tony_N]

Jewie - I've put up a post asking about this before and didn't get much response beyond what I already knew. I've read about their tendency to lip-hook rather than gut-hook fish. But my understanding is that you need to change your fishing methods with them. That is, if you strike when you get a bite, you are likely to pull the hook out of the fishes mouth. As I understand it, to set the hook the fish needs to turn and have the hook set itself as it is coming out of the fishes mouth.

I would find not striking a bit hard after getting my striking technique down pretty pat after lots of years of fishing. And so I haven't really bothered with them. I notice though that a fair few people on here mention them.

My son turned me on to Kahle hooks for fishing for trout with handlines on the reef. They are almost circle hooks and are designed to do the same job. The theory is that you hold the line firm and allow the fish to hook itself.

Like you I'd like to have more info

(BTW - the cheap bulk hooks and swivels from Raef fell through - too fiddley for him at that time I think)

Tony

[nigelr]

I use circles for inshore reef fishing for snapper, Mustad Demons 8/0. Used to use Gamakatsu Octopus but have stuck with the finer, slightly less expensive, non-kirbed Demons. Perfect for fishing with the rod in the holder and the reel out of gear, when a snapper runs, click the reel into gear and simply start to wind. Do no strike! Takes a little practice but I love em. I use squid or flesh baits, or a combo of the two. As stated, it is rare to hook fish anywhere but in the mouth with these circles, makes de-hooking much quicker!
I tried them on the beach at night for tailor and jew but couldn't warm to them, prefer to strike at a bite, useing 10/0 Gama suicides instead.

[jeffo]

dave- dont mean to dampen your spirits re gut hooking fish as its good to see fisherman out there who care about our fish stocks survival. but the circle hooks you are using arent much better than j hooks as far as gut hooking fish goes. any circle hook with an offset can (and do) find a less than ideal place to hook a fish ie. gut and gills.

Another thing i have found when using circle hooks is they need to be matched to th size of the fish as well (the corner of the fishes jaw). We use eagle claw circles for our sailfish and small black marlin in 7/0. to look at this hook is a far way smaller than what you would think would be ideal, but works a treat. the eagle claw circles are a similar shape to the new light guage mustad demons ut a a touch heavier.

If gut hooking fish inst so much of an issue for you then i have found the old black mustad demons to work a treat on most reefies. once again in the smaller sizes.

when fishing with circle hooks on a paternosta is is important which way you put the hook on your dropper loop. the line should go through the eye of the hook from the front (the side the hook point and gape is on). this is to keep the hook sort of kinked in towards the dropper loop to help the way a circle hook works when pulled from the fishes mouth.

one other important thing when using circle hooks is how your bait is presented on them. basically you want the majority of the gape and point out of the hooks as posibble so it can find its mark, (remembering there is NO striking with circle hooks). When live baiting with circles use a bridle to keep the hook away from the bait. when using them for reef fishing i mainly use strip baits and just hook the bait on once and leave the rest hanging underneith the hook, this leaves most of the hok showing from the bait.

[finding_time]

Good post Jeffo

I use 7/0-----9/0 owner circle hooks ( Yes they are expensive) but when you add the cost of a fishing trip they don't add that much.

The reason i like the owners is they are a true circle( No offset) and i achieve a great hook-up rate, there also very sharp. ;)

I'm always careful to match the size of hook to size of bait because you definately don't want to hide the point in or near the bait at all. Once i feel a fish having a go at my bait i let it run for a bit and just lean back on the rod and bingo great hook-up if you strike you will pull the bait and hook straight out of the fishes mouth.

A good way to test the this is throw you rig into a bucket and yank it out quickly( it will come straight out) then pull it out slowly it will always grab at the rim. ;)


Ian

[billfisher]

I use tuna circles for all my deepwater bottom bouncing. Yes, it is advisable to delay your strike but it is not a huge issue in this type of fishing. As you have so much line out you are not likely to be prematurely pulling the bait out of the fishes mouth.

The hooks I use have a slight offset but I can't remember ever gut hooking a fish. The hook is always firmly planted in the jaw hinge.

As others have said you don't bury the hook in the bait. What I do is pass the hook once through the bait near the top. Not only do you get more hookups this way the fish find the bait far more attractive presented this way as it wafts around naturally.

[Reefmaster]

This might be of interest to some.

http://www.fishing.sh/htmfiles/hookreports/tyingvssnelling.html

Regards Greg

[finding_time]

Thanks for that greg ;) ;) ;)

No wonder i like my circles :D

Ian

[-spiro-]

I use 6/0 circles on dropper rigs as well as live bait snooded rigs.
I find that i get alot better hook ups with them. I find that when you hook the pearlies its allways a mouth hook up. For some reason on the snapper i seem to hook them in the top of there mouth which sometimes is hard to get out. I put this down to them holding the bait in there mouth and running off with it. Then the hook turns when the line is at tension.
I use squid, cuttlefish heads, pillies, flesh and livies on them. So i find them a very good all round hook.

Jeffo can you show some pics of what you mean here. Just as a clarifacation--------circle hook with an offset can (and do) find a less than ideal place to hook a fish ie. gut and gills.

Thanks Chris

[-spiro-]

Dissregard my comment to you Jeffo. Greg has nailed it. About time i learn't something new 8-)
Thanks Greg for that 8-)

[Cheech]

I use circles on almost all my rigs. Never been a big striker so was easy to ransition to them.

I had read that NZ article a while ago. Great test results. I also tried that way of snelling the hooks. Seems really odd to tie a knot without actually locking it off. But it does work. I just found that it did not lock off very well with light leader so have not continued with it. With teh light line the wraps tended to spring out a bit and loosen the knot.

That article is a good reminder though as I had started to just uni my hooks. Better go back to snelling (just with a traditional snell).

Cheech

[jeffo]

thats a top link greg!!

[griz066]

you use them to get rid of a heap of xtra cash when buying them >:(
But they hook up well 8-)

[SURF_SNIPER]

great, link greg.... have saved it to favourites so i can read it properly when i get home from work

[bignick]

I love circle hooks as they always seem to hook fish in the corner of the mouth, which makes the hook easier to remove and reduces damage to fish destined to be released. It also seems that you don't have to hit fish hard at all to set the hook; I find just feel the weight and put a little bit of pressure on and the job's done. Nobody knows why they work; they just DO.

Cheers,
NICK.

[Burley_Boy]

Well they certainly shone on my last trip out.
My mate had the same bait and same rigs and standard hooks, he didn't land a keeper, and I kept 7x Snapper and 1xParrot. He lost plenty of bait but no hookups and he's been fishing a lot more than me.

Every Snapper was mouth hooked and the Parrot was caught under the eye :o :o
I use sharp hooks preferable new each trip.
I'm not the best at striking so for Snapper and letting them run with a bait for a little while they're great. Leaving a rod in a holder while rigging up another is just fine too as the fish hook themselves. If you do that with a regular hook I'd expect gut hooking as a rule.