OK..this subject is nothing new...it's been talked about over and over... so what's another round..
2 decades ago, I tried switching from J hooks ( then eagle claw 4/0) to Gamakatsu circle hooks.. these were offset of the same 4/0 size I had been using... my motivation was purely for personal gain... my thinking at the time was ( I was commercially bass fishing) that if I could unhook the fish faster, with less leader /hook retying I could make more money... being an eel fisherman, this scenario didn't quite go as planned... I dropped a lot of fish...mostly because the hook doubled back into the eel and often times missed flesh... to add insult to misery I gut hooked nearly as many fish... I stopped the "experiment" in short order...
over the last few year have dabbled in the use of circles... I no longer sell my catch ( and for the record hold no malice towards those that do.. it's their right/choice )so "speed" is not the motivation.. I'm trying to do what's best for the resource. short of not fishing ( and my aging eyes don't coordinate my fingers to tie knots as well as they used to)...I've used them for bottom/ ground fish with great success for quite a few years now...
Both myself, and the circle hook have advanced since my first "test" with them
This past July 4th.. I went to Maine for the weekend.. as most know Maine has a straight circle hook only rule ( prior to this trip I had only used off set circles)... I caught 27 fish of various sizes on cut herring and mackerel chunks( fished from the banks of the Saco while I drank a cold one)..every one of those fish was neatly hooked in the corner of the mouth...
Once back home I decided to revisit using circle hooks for live eels..
I've gone to Gamakatsu 5/0- inline octopus style...and absolutely love the results... I've used them with various sized eels on fish from 3- 40lbs.. the results have been the same... neatly buttoned in the corner of the mouth.. I haven't had a "eel ball" or a gut hooked fish yet.. it doesn't seem to matter if I'm deep water drifting.. or trolling or casting the result is the same... counting those 27 fish I'm close to 80 fish with out a gut hooked fish.. I couldn't say that about a J hook...
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