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Over the past two seasons, Gamakatsu Octopus Circles in 7/0 have become my favorite chunking hook.
I set up with the point all the way through the chunk, so that there's no obstruction between the barbed tip and the shank of the hook: for me, this is critical for circle hook performance.
It took me a while to adapt to the way circles work. Can't tell you how many I yanked out of fish's mouths until I learned to drop my rod tip and let the fish pick up the chunk and begin the run, and then instead of yanking, to bring the rod tip up quickly, in a smooth, firm motion.
Most of the time, my fish is lip-hooked in the corner of the mouth, and easy to unhook and release. Circle hooks have greatly reduced my incidents of gut hooked schoolies, which makes me very happy, since I want to catch these same fish again in about five years or so.
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Threaded Mode