Circle Hooks

[Gatiepie2]

Can anyone advise how to use these hooks. This past weekend I used one for the first time? I had a very good bite and the rod was pulled down. I thought that I should give the fish more time then I tightened the drag and gave a small strike. Lost the fish.

The second senario was when a fish gave a few good tugs on the bait. Again I waited for the fish to take off. Eventually the fish left the bait.  

What should I do in these cases????

 

 

[marinello599]

Circle hooks-dont strike!what iv discovered with them is its all about placement,meaning because of the wide offset when baiting up the hook tends to curl inward,always ensure that it stands fairly proud.another thing i do is take a pliers and just slightly offset the hook left/right.these minor adjustments has worked better for me since i started using circles.try it,it just might help.

 

[aquadementia]

Make sure the hook is very proud. Once youre confident the fish has the hook in its mouth, simply aim your rod at the fish and wind. VAS PAPPA! Giving a little strike isnt recommended. As far as i know all circle hooks are chemically sharpened so they should set properly instantly

 

[benniejordaan]

1. The hook must be proud and the gap must not be obscured.
2. Give the fish time to swollow
3. Ensure the fish is swimming directly away from you before tightening up. If the fish swims off to the side, give more line. The drag of the line in the water will set the hook. Basically you want the line to pass his flank.
4. Keep the rod tip down.
5. Apply pressure gradually.
6. Once the hook is set and you know you have pressure on the fish, you can bounce the rod a few times... but not strike.
7. Best way to rig the hook is with a snell, making sure the line comes through the eye to the insice of the hook.

Circles work well when you are patiant..

A typical circle hook up on a very big fish... Note, no steel trace!

 

[benniejordaan]

While fishing for shoaling Dorado last year we experimented with differnt scinarios and hooks The Mustads with the off set worked well. The only problem we had was the fish still got gut hooked every now and then. When we made sure the line was passing over his flank, we had "0" droped following 20 odd fish! All the fish dropped was when they were moving off to the side which Dories often do swimming around the boat.
The nice thing about this experiment was we could see axactly what was happening and watched the fish eat and their movement!
In reality, they took the bait and swollowed it verually immediately.

 

[Gatiepie2]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How do circle hooks work when fishing drift bait for shad? Are circle hooks

recomended?

Gatiepie2

 

[Gatiepie2]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How do circle hooks work when fishing drift bait for shad? Are circle hooks

recomended?

Gatiepie2

 

[benniejordaan]

Interesting, on Saturday night Rodney was braaiing on the boat so left his bait with a 8/0 circle in the water, but right at the surface next to the boat just so it wasn't lying on the deck. A shad came up, ate it and got himself hooked right in the corner of the mouth! 1 free fish for the pan!

 

[Stroker]

important to size your hook for your target species, learned that expensive lesson on the rocks at Fish river, circle hooks to smaal for the raggies and losta very good fish

 

[benniejordaan]

Stroker wrote:

important to size your hook for your target species, learned that expensive lesson on the rocks at Fish river, circle hooks to smaal for the raggies and losta very good fish

The Hammer up in that pic is a 2m shark caught on a 6/0 mustad circle. The hook was so embedded in his jaw there was no retrieving it! But he was vas! Now a 6/0 hook is smaller than a 6/0 Hoodlum.

What size circles were you using?