Quote:
Originally Posted by hq2
I dunno, 100 fish is a lot. I know the mortality rate for circle hooks is low, but the odds are at least some of the released fish may have died. With things going like they have been over the past few years, all of us need to think about things when we do C&R.
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100% agree, which I why I asked RF9 what hook he was using and size. I have personally found that sizes in the 5/0&6/0 work well but not all manufacturers. One thing I have noticed is the hook size really does matter. Increased size seems to (in my experience, gut hook more fish) until a certain upper size and then it works again when the gap is around or close to 1" which occurs on a 10/0 circle but not all manufacturers, this hook tends to find a purchase under the jaw bone of larger bass.
I have also been using circles to teach my kids how to fish in general, right? All they have to do is reel, brilliant.
What I have found is that the hook size and effectiveness matters a lot between species. E.g. what does a fish of a certain species do when striking a live or dead bait, and what happens in those moments before coming tight that effects how/where the hook finds purchase and if it sets up in their gullet or not.
Aside from Striped Bass I fish for both largemouth and smallmouth bass and have learned a lot over the past 5 years fishing mustad's thin wire demon circles for these two species. What I have learned drove my question to RF9.
When I first began this experiment it was for my first born to learn fishing. Live bait gets undeniable attention so that was a check box, and the idea that the full experience of casting to hooking and fighting a fish could happen by simply reeling in line a circle hook was the answer.
I looked at a lot of hooks, but landed on one manufacturer for this fresh water species. Mustad's inline demon circle. I bought a package of size 1 and 4 to start. And started with the size 1. Immediately, I noticed the hookup ratio was great however it came as a shock to see so many gut hooked fish. So I changed to size 4 and the hookup ratio remained the same but the gut hooked fish deminished to 1 out of 20 with a very young angler's reaction time. And separately myself with 1 out of 40 being gut hooked, probably lower if I was at the rod to immediately attend/react. For LMB a size 4 in line circle has been the ticket. We hook shiners up thru the lower jaw and out a nostril. We have named our fish, and have experienced annual visiting fish that we've caught multiple times including those gut hooked which I have simply cut the line close to the hook and let go rather than trying to do a damaging extraction.
As for the smallmouth bass, our starting point was the same size 4 hook and we realized very quickly that it never purchased well with these fish. I moved up to the size 1 hook and have seen the same results (of very low gut hooked fish). I attribute this to the fact that a smallmouth bass is way more aggressive, and a slightly different mouth geometry. The size 1 hook tends not to find their gullet but the corner of their mouths or the lip.
In both instances above this has been from shore, a dock, or a boat.
In regards to Striped Bass, I think the size 5/0 and 6/0 are probably the best bet for a boat bass of any size. When you want to catch a bass on live or dead bait from shore with a low angle it should be something in the 10/0 range with a point to shank gap of an inch or greater especially for a chunked bait.
Hq2, to your point on reviving fish, last night I caught 7 surf bass and they all fought weird. Came directly to the surface, and did not fight until the surf break. I felt like they were sleeping but ate my offering anyways, until they were like oh shnikes I'm going into shore. Each one took varying degrees of revival time.
This is a great thread.
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