Gut hooked bass
 

I am looking for a solution for gut hooked bass. I have been using Gamakatsu live bait hooks when livelining. I get the pickup, wait a few seconds for the chomp/swallow and then I setup. The hooks work too well.
70% of the fish are hooked deep in the mouth. 50% of the deep hooked fish, the hook is not visible. Throwing plugs or casting flies in years past, I did not have this problem.
Bleeding bass drive me a crazy. I had a small keeper this weekend that I nearly pulled the stomach out its mouth. I love eating bass, however, I don't want to kill 1/2 the fish I hook.

Are circle hooks the answer? IMO, you need to pull the hook out of the bait and drive it home into the fish.

Please help.
Any advise would be great.

I drift fish with sandeels a lot and being a small bait the bass just suck them in and tend to gut hook themselves no matter how quick you set the hook. I went to circle hooks and I very rarely have that problem any more. I won't use anything else for that type of fishing. Might have to use a larger hook but I am sure you could incorporate it into your style of fishing.

no question that circle hooks will dramatically reduce gut hooks. I have yet to gut hook a fish with circles (knockonwood). They hook fish well too.

Bruce-
Some guys use a 1/0 or 2/0 treble hook and don't wait as long to set the hook. Seems to work well and protects the fish. I know that Blaine Anderson who fishes out of CT uses this method and releases a lot of fish safely.

Jonas

i use larger hooks now. gamakatsu or owner tuna hooks, 6/0 or bigger.

I use circles for all bait applications be it sea worms, chunks, eels. Rarely gut hook a fish in any of these settings. I use Gami 7/0 or 6/0 circle octopus hooks. I would not hesitate to us them with macks or pogies...

9/0- 10/0 circle hook should help eliminate that problem

The gamakatsu I use are 9/0 live bait heavy duty. I like the lg size and short shank and holds the bait well.
I will have to try using a circle hook in a live pogie. How does the hook turn and set in the jaw if it is still stuck in the back of a 12" pogie?

when that bass engulfs that bait it just gets sucked in. just let them hang themselves. i like gamis and the bigger the better. it's tough to give up the hookset but much kinder to the fish. try em you'll never go back. seems like you having a great spring.

gami non offset circle hooks , try them

Sorry this is off topic, but how do u drift fish sand eels. Just put a hook in them and cast it??

Remember, with circle hooks never haul back to drive the hook home, just reel, nothing else. When the line comes tight, you'll have him. We used these in Panama this winter to take yellowfin tuna, sailfish and black marlin on live bonito. A bass will have no trouble eating a pogie with a circle hook.

Parker we ran into that problem live lining shad, believe it or not but switching to 4/0 & or 5/0 trebles the hook was able to find a home faster and therefor helped avoid gut hooking the fish.

Drift from a boat. I hook them thru the eyes on a circle with the needed weight so they bounce along the bottom and look for a rip. I use same exact technique for fluke except I use a live bait hook. Drop to bottom and drift thru rip. Pass rip and repeat. Pretty basic. Fresh sand eels are the key.