went fishing to the mouth of the Merrimack river sunday before the storms. Got a lesson in navigating in the fog as well but thats another story. We were drifting live macks which we caught off sailsbury...they are everywhere by the way. on our first drift my buddy hooked into a nice fish but his line was wrapped all around his reel...i had to take the spool off to untangle the line letting out slack line and all. the fish then swam under the boat and got wrapped in the prop of the motor. when all was said and done we netted the 32" fish with the hook securely in the corner of the fishes mouth. i am positive he wouldn't have gotten that fish if we hadn't been using circle hooks. a few drifts later the only live mack we had left was about a 15" so he figured what the hell and threw it out there. BAM...right away we hooked into a nice fish which ran in the opposite direction of our drift for about 100 yards. it them swam so fast at our boat that he my buddy could keep up and again a bunch of slack was created. when he finally caught up the fish was still there...36" 20#. we ended up with like 6 fish in a few hours. all hooked in the corner of the mouth. got to give it up to circle hooks!!!

Congrats on the catch.

I nay be missing something but I don't see how using a circle hook was an advantage over a J hook. Seems to me if the fish had been hooked with J hooks then the line went slack the end result would have been the same.

Nice catch BTW...

The circle hooks catching the corner of the lip is good but would these two events have prevented a good hookset with normal hooks?

First of all you don't have to set the circle hooks...you just reel hard and the hook sets into the corner of the mouth. The design allows it to wrap around where as a regular hook just goes in. Now when there is slack the hook can't simply slip out. I don't know if those fish would have been caught otherwise...maybe so...maybe not...but most of the time when the fish I have set into with regular hooks get some slack...away they go...unless they are hooked deep. either way I am gonna stick with the circles. I have noticed that a lot of the fishing shows from the keys and down south use these hooks exclusively...there must be some advantage there. also...I have caught several bluefish with these hooks and mono because the hook gets into the corner of the mouth they are not able to bite through the line. its not like I have stock or own a company that makes them...just thought I would let the forum know for those who are sKeptical or have never heard about them. never know until you try em. it sure is a hard habit to break not setting into the fish though!!!!
quit wishin, go fishin
Dave

Slammer, not a naysayer of circle hooks at all. I'm actually an advocate of them (though have not been a fan when eeling). Matter of fact, I think they should be used in most bait fhishing and all chunking as they dramatically reduce any gut hooking and with some methods, improve the hook-up ratio.


'Luck Slammer...

after re-reading my last post I realized it sounded defensive and arrogant...sorry if it was taken as such
Dave

Nope, all is cool Slammer... Just wanted to show we were on the same page....

Damn circle hooks, who wants to use those things anyway... jokes.

Seriously, as John mentioned, he is not a big fan of them while eeling. I had a similar experience the one time I tried them with eels. I had three eels slip or swim off in a couple of dozen casts... has anyone or does anyone use them with eels? have you had that problem?

I'm definitely an advocate of them because of the reduced mortality rates. I would use them for chunking, though I really don't use bait much other than eels. Maybe I've given up on them too soon.

Circle hooks are great. I don't reel to set them. If you reel to set the hook, you are going to put twist in your line. Sooner or later, that twist will catch up with you. The way I set the hook with a circle hook, I lift the rod gently so the fish can pull line off the drag but has a little resistance. At the same time, I palm the spool with my right hand while I hold the rod on the foregrip. Take a few steps back and it works for me.

On the same subject, has anyone tried circle hooks for other species out of the surf like freshwater guys?

Patrick - you didn't have a conventional until yesterday, right? Or are you talking about palming a spinner...

I was talking to Clammer last night, he said he was doing well with circle hooks & eels...

SChoolie, last weekend at the cape JohnR gave me ahook to use with eels, needless to say it didnt matter then, the other night I went out around here and the first two fish I got with them were gut hooked/ cut the line and went to circle hooks / three hookups ,3 fish /all lip hooked. Yet I used them with buckies one night and Imight have well used a safety pin!! Went out again with JohnR an Fishpart, first five runs for me produced 5 fish then I missed the next 5 fish!! GO FIGURE??

PS SChoolie, the only eels that came off the hooks the other night were helped by bass!!

Yeah, palming a spinning reel. I was always under the impression that controlling a conventional in addition to the drag was called "thumbing". Maybe I have it wrong.

I fished eels friday night for the first time this season. I caught a small keeper and he was gut hooked even though I hit him pretty quick. I don't use the 5 count method, I just drop the rod and hit 'em.

I had some family in town so I was debating keeping the fish for the grill anyway, but the fact that he was gut hooked sealed his fate.

I think I'll try the circle's again...

Patrick, how much can a hook twist from a fish's throat to the corner of its mouth with an eel or chunk on it and the fish's mouth clamped down on your bait? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

You have said many times that you haven't caught many fish to this point, I'm pretty sure you've caught even fewer fish on eels... what experience led you to deduce that reeling up on a circle hook gives you line twist?

Slammer,
what size circle hooks do u use ???? did u hook the mackeral in the back or in the mouth with it. i recentley tried using a circle hook with a live herring and hooking them in the back so my first herring i threw out there i had a small run and it took the bait right off??? then i had one more herring left and i had the biggest hit i ever had. the pole went down and almost snapped . i tried to set the hook and it snapped a 20 pound line like paper. so over all i havent had much success using a circle hook with live herring but with chunking it worked great. so mayb ur help would help me land more fish.
hooked
p.s have u tried using them with live eels??

Here is how you get the twist. A fish hits your bait, he's taking out line. You go to put the hook in the jaw how? By reeling in the line. What is the number one cause of line twist in a spinning reel? Reeling against the drag. This might not happen right off the bat but you hit 5 fish in a night, setting the hook that way and you'll end up with twist in the line. I guarantee it.

Schoolie, I've caught my fair share of fish. Just the early season fishing was slooooow.

Patrick:

I think your wrong about this one. If a fish is pulling line hard enough to strip drag, it will set the hook itself if you are using a circle hook. In that scenario, you will not need to reel to get the hook set, you will just need to maintain pressure on the fish. I agree that reeling while drag is slipping will lead to line twist, but disagree with the premise that the only way you can set a circle hook is through reeling. That's just the typical way, since the fish will not ordinarily run hard(thereby stripping drag) until it feels the pressure from a taut line.

I was casting & retrieving live eels with 30# Fireline and a 5/0 circle hook on a Penn Squidder down off the Elizabeth's last weekend. Got kind of casual after a while and had a striper (I guess) slam the eel so hard it jarred the rod out of my hands. Didn't hook him but never had a hit as hard as that one before...never had a chance to give him line, set the hook or do much of anything and I wonder if that's just the nature of things fishing w/ a braid. If so, I guess they either hook themselves or they don't get hooked...no way I had any time to react.
(The eel looked like it had been pounded half a dozen times by a ball peen hammer<g>)

That's why I said I NEVER set the hook with a circle hook like that.

The way I do it, I palm the spool, lift the rod, and walk backwards. If the fish is running, I don't stop the spool completely, I just tighten up on it a bit.

Patrick, I think you are fishing with your drag a bit loose if this is the case. If your peeling drag on the bite, how do maintain any control on the fish once hooked, once the fish makes some real runs? How do reel period? Palming the spool is fine on a run, but won't help when its time to gain back some line.

Your drag should not be set so light that only moderate pressure takes line or you would lose good contact with your fish.

And what do you do when the fish runs towards you, or left or right? Not all fish head straight away. You have to be able to reel hard to get hooks on 'em.

I certainly don't disagree that reeling against the drag causes mega line twist, it does... and I know that some chunkers using spinning equipment fish with a loose drag if they don't have a baitrunner, allowing the fish to run while they get to the rod, then they clamp down when the fish is hooked. Is this what you mean? If so, I'm at least following you.

If the fish is running towards me, I do reel. Of course, if the fish is running towards me, it's not taking drag and the issue of line twist doesn't come into the picture.

My drag might be set loose. My feeling is, I have this ingenius little system known as a fishfinder on my line that lets fish take the line without feeling the weight, why screw that up with a tight drag?

This all comes down to how you set your drag. A fish has to take line right? Otherwise she's going to pull the rod down the beach or feel the rod and let go. That means your drag has to be set. That means the fish is taking line. Now you are saying you reel to set the hook. A spinning drag + reeling line= Line Twist.

Give the probably belly or bit of slack in your line, current, the bend of your rod, the distance from the hook to your rod and allowing a little for the stretch of mono I think the fish won't feel the weight as quickly as you think using a fishfinder rig. If you used a 3-way swivel or a dropper loop rig the fish would feel the weight almost immediately. I think there's a difference between feeling weight and feeling some tugging resistance. I think the former would spook the fish quicker than the latter.

If the fish is taking your drag you really shouldn't be trying to reel in against the drag anyway. Have your hand on the handle ready to immediately react if the fish stops or changes direction. But don't try to reel against the drag.

Sorry Patrick, I bow to your superior knowledge. Did you invent the fish finder?

Thank you for explaining to me that reeling against the drag causes line twist. Ever since I started fishing when I was 5, I always thought that was caused by fish that grabbed my lure and swam in circles. I wish my calculus teacher would have given me the equation: reeling + drag = line twist.

I think we are just not on the same page here.

I think you are talking about fishing out of a rod holder in which case, I see that the fish must take line as not to alert him before you get off your lawn chair and get to the rod.

I'm talking about casting and swimming eels in which case I see no value of using a light drag.

Moral of the story: use conventional gear