John - welcome to S-B...
Couple things: You can certainly try a circle hook, typical bait chunkin' go with a 5/0 or 6/0 sized hook. When a fish picks up the bait, let it run for a 3-7 seconds with the rod pointing at the fish and then start reeling once the line is taught, raise the tip of the rod high and you should be on. If you use the traditional hook set, circles don't work. The Circles will also hook the fish in the corner of the mouth and are far less like likely to "gut hook" a fish and eventually killing it.
Good chunking rule of thumb when not using circles is to let fish run and usually after a few seconds to 6-7 seconds you'll feel a pause, that's the best time to set the hook but odds are you'll gut hook (any of you professional chunkers have anything to add?
). This was something I did a lot before realizing that a lot of fish I let go may not have survived because they were gut hooked.
Anyway, certainly give the circles a shot. If you get 20 runs, you'll get a higher hookup ratio. Another thing to consider if you're chunking is a bait runner style reel.
Threaded Mode