Do you use circle hooks when fishing your live herring/chunks/eels?

[striprman]

I use j hooks.

[NC-Steve]

I have recently switched to circle hooks and have been very satisfied with the results. We have used them with live eels, live herring, and cut bait and found them to work equally well on each. The best thing was that each fish was caught in the corner of the mouth. I am slowly getting rid of all of my J-hooks and will fish circle hooks 100% form now on. I have not tried them on blues, trout, or drum yet but have had good luck with rock and catfish. We have been toying with the red hooks but haven’t found that big of a difference yet. The biggest thing is to remember…”crank, don’t yank”. A nice steady retrieve seems to do the trick of setting the hook.

Steve,

Wilmington, NC

[Roger]

Generally I use circle hooks to avoid gut hooked fish, though that's not been a problem with eels.

Remember, offset circles don't count. they are only marginally better at reducing gut hooked fish than J hooks (according to a bunch of studies I've read)

[pete santini]

i only uce circles for live eels for chonk i use 8\0 eagle claw 084 m and for live bait i use 2\0 4x strong trebles but you have to strike quick with the trebles. troll a santinitube they never get hooked deep always in the corner of the mouth. good luck petesantini