Circle Hooks
 

Quick question: I know circles are now the law for live bait. What is a good circle hook for eeling? I was always being a Mustad fan I was thinking of Mustad 39944-BN 6/0 in-line circle, but wanted hear some thoughts before I start making my leaders for this season.

TIA,

Aaron

No such thing as a good circle in my
Opinion I understand reasoning but even through the learning curve I miss more fish than have in the past. Maybe that’s why they made the switch
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With eels I am 99% hook ups little less with live pogies chunk is were my hook ratio tanks
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8/0 circle bigger opening for bass thicker lips
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I don't bait fish much for stripers but I like the owner ssw for drum. Generally user 10/0 for chunks. Would probably go with 8/0 for eels
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For eeling, I really like the Gamakatsu 3604XX in sizes 6/0 and 7/0. It has the thicker wire I prefer with eels to resist tear-outs on the cast. The Mustad 39944-BN is a good option as well and is what I use for chunking in size 10/0. The only drawback I see on the Mustad for eeling is the thinner wire. Another really good Mustad option is the 39950NP-BN. It has a thicker wire than the 39944-BN but costs roughly twice as much per hook.

I started using circles about 20 years ago, and my results were terrible, I didn't like them very much, they cost me a lot of fish. most of those early ones were Gami's or eagle claws, they have come a long way, and I've learned a lot about them and how to use them..IMHO The Owner 5/0 or 6/0 Matu light in line is the best hook I have used for live lining eels,but bait size will dictate hook size, so you need to have several sizes at your disposal, it's also a great live line( pogies or Mac's) hook in the 7/0 or 8/0 size, I've tried just about everyone's in various styles and the Owner beats them all IMHO , I prefer the thinner wire because in my experience it has less tendency to split the nose on the smaller baits that are more productive when there is a lot of fire in the water, the thinner wire also allows for multiple fish to be caught on a single eel, something that can be difficult with a thicker hook that leaves a massive hole in the snout of the squirmer.. the Gamakatsu is a close second, but tends to still gut hook a lot of fish on some nights...the Gami's also have a nasty habit of some how ending up back in the body of the eel, more so than anyone else's ..circle hooks are a great tool that take some style changes to get used to, they do gut hook less fish and also allow for easy release without removing the fish from the water if that is your thing, something that I've tried to do more often over the last few years.

^^^^^ This

Hook thickness becomes more important surf vs. boat.... you tend to use a lot more umphh...when casting from shore, hence the thinner gauged hook being more of an issue. From the boat, it's mostly a heavy to light lob of the eel, not so much of a "whipping" cast....IMO-

yes, that is true to a degree, most( location dependent) times long casts aren't needed anyway, and any one that has fished an eel knows those things do not cast well to begin with, but the way the hook actually goes into the bait makes a big difference, the design of most circle hooks makes it difficult to insert into the bait, some are just awful, thus leaving a hole bigger than we like, unless the bait is really big, you risk damage to the bait when you bait up, and live chumming will occur, I've had guys toss a dozen eels into the water.. unattached, mainly due to hook choice and or the way they hooked the bait,the second problem I have found is because of the nature of the circle hook, thick hooks have trouble penetrating the hard cartilage or jaw bone, resulting in a higher miss and lost fish ratio, and those fish hooked in the soft tissue of the jaw hinge, often button hole and are lost as well...thinner hooks with good temper( cheap hooks bend, break and get dull) do not have that issue, I've had to actually cut the hook shank on some they were so well imbedded and remove them in 2 pieces, like everything else we do, no one hook is the absolute answer, conditions and location are the deciding factor, just like no one rod or reel combo is not the absolute answer... "we the people" are the real engineers, and it's discussions like this that will get us the products we need for our particular circumstance, it will also help explain our successes and failures and at the same time, do the least amount of damage to the resource..

this is a good thread.

I hook under the eels jaw and out an eye . Catching multiple Bass with one eel casting from the beach. With no rocks a thinner hook works fine I don’t set the hook with circles I bow the rod then an easy sweep parallel to the water so the line and hook are sliding pass the jaw hinge and that’s it ,, and straight up hook set I see a Bass feel the pressure and just open it’s mouth and the hook follows the line right out. also how you tie your circle hooks matter. I think. I snell mine with the main leader back to the braid goes in the back of the hook eye so the line pull cause the circle hook to turn in driving the point
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I agree on this 100%!!!! Here is the knot I use for all my circle hooks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNL8OMhUzlU

:pats2:I use something like that if I need to replace a hook on an attached leader . i think my way is much easier..(or at least for me in the light of a headlamp) I form a loop 1st push that thru the front eye then lay the loop on the shank and wrap my tag around the shank and the loop from the top down 5 -6 times then pass the tag end thru the loop and tighten once tighten the tag end should be pointed down the shaft ..... they need to be cinched down good or they will uncoil . I do snell the regular way if I am making leaders beforehand

add me to the snell list. I carry pre snelled leaders (singularly) in small zip lock bags, the swivel end has a surgeons loop making it a quick change scenario with out having to snell in the dark.

Thanks for the replies Gentleman! Really appreciate the different perspectives and experiences with circles....all this is new to me as I havent chucked a ell off the rocks in 4 years. Think I will try Gama 3604s and the Mustad and see what I like best. Thanks again for the help

I'm sure there was some science put into it...and the mechanics of a "Circle Hook" lead you to believe that it should work....but while fishing live pogies today, had to cut a few leaders.....hook down in the esophagus.
Just saying, my gut-hook numbers haven't improved much with live bait...but by giving the pogy a nose-ring, you're sending the hook right down into the belly of the beast as bass will swallow it head first...so if you use the same theory, that's not helping the matter....but I sure as hell ain't changing the way I rig em..
But like everything else, once we're all adjusted to using them exclusively...it won't matter much, J-hooks will become a memory :crying:

I killed allot of sublegal bass this past week live lining mackeral with gami in-line circles

I’m trying to have the faith but I can honestly say I think I would have less throat hooked fish with live bait j hooks

If chunking I bet the Circle do allot better than j s but for live bait I just am not seeing it
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another adjustment J hook users need to change while using circles is allowing the fish to run as long as you did when using a J hook ( muscle memory ).. and there is no need to set the hook just take in the slack , pogie are tough with circles if you hook thru the nose I use a bait Bridal it gets the hook out farther and doesn’t turn into the bait as much , it’s funny I almost never gut hook bass with eels and circles ? You would think it would be the opposite..
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I'm hearing a lot from some very well known captains that the circles have not been working as well as the theorized. Could be that normally most accomplished anglers hit fish fairly quickly while using J-hooks. With circles they're told to just let fish run until your line tightens, then lift. This may add much more time for the bass to swallow baits then these anglers would normally wait.

I'm having EXCELLENT success with circles and live pogies. That is ZERO gut hooks. That's because I have hooked EXACTLY ZERO fish. :cens::cens::cens: No idea what I am doing wrong. With eels i use circles exclusively and have excellent success....

I honestly feel bass choke down a pogie faster than an eel or or small Mak but Personally dont let them run with the pogie no line leaves my Spool I fell the knock . and lift the rod .. if you hook behind the back dorsal and can free swim them gut hooking is reduced ,, but anything tru the nose or 3 waying them gets tough

I don't agree...actually just the opposite, I would think a small bait gets inhaled and swallowed fairly quickly...a big old pogy needs to squeeze through the esophagus opening, that must take some additional time/, there are still some sharp barbs on that pogy that the bass needs to reckon with, carefully>IMO

I let her run a little, ...too many dropped pogies to keep things locked down. Too many years trying too many methods...I'm all for learning new stuff, but I like to catch and not just go fishing.
Pains me to see them gut-hooked like that though...these fish were well above the slot, so fighting fish that large with the hook embedded in the throat can't be good, the minute I saw the leader vanish into the abyss, the line got cut, and it took no time at all to revive and get splashed in the face with water. What happens after that is out of my control.
By using a "J" hook, I'd set quicker and possibly get the hook out of harms way faster than allowing it to reach those depths, but again JMO -

On topic, different resource, fresh water:. LMB, Perch, crappie, bluegills. The size 4 circle hook by mustad 39951BN-NP is the best for pond fish. The size 1 demons do not catch the same fish, and the larger size also gut hooks more fish in the same environment. The species doesn't matter. What rockfish9 said is a scaled down version of this. I stopped using 1s because every fish was taking them deep. The #4 was corner of the mouth 100% of the time.

That being said I went to Champlain and the fish there we got 0% hookups. I went to the size 1 and got 100% hookups.

I used that same hook for my 6 y/o for tog and it was a 100% hook up. Pia to thread it thru the eye but it worked.

The fishery will dictate what size hook works. Even in fresh water. The 10/0 is perfect for chunks, the live bait needs a honed effort... Sucks I know but needs to be done, RF9 likes a 5/0 or 6/0 depeding on bait size of (eels) if you have a live pogie on or porgy I think the method is a bridal band to break and it might be a larger hook. That's also a large fish target 30+
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I spent a lot of time, years really watching these fish eat bait. The circle hook size absolutely matters.
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I use nothing smaller then a 7/0 my go to size for everything is usually 8/0 bass are not bothered by hook size or line shy bigger hook bigger gap hooks better and holds better for me anyway. And I can’t recall the last time I gut hooked a bass on an eel or a Mack. but pogies it happens more often that’s for sure
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