Off-Shore fishing with Circle hooks

[Capt. Hook]

I am determned to master the use of circle hooks, so far what ever I have mastered has worked exceptionally well.

The key to using circles is to forget what you know about J Hooks and trebles and the principal is entirely different.

This thread is dedicated to how to use circle hooks.

Please add your knoweledge.

[benniejordaan]

One particular Summer we fished with nothing but circles and I got to observe Dorado feeding next to the boat. I learnt a lot! I'll give you my view.

1 - The best and only way I'll rig them is by snelling them. It is also important to have the main line come out on the inside of the hook.

2 - I always hook the bait through the top of the head, never through the nostrils as we do with live bait hooks, If you do, there is a risk the point will jam into the head.

3 - You can actually get by with relatively small hooks compared to J hooks or bait holders. The pic attached is a large Hammer head - no steel and a 6/0 circle intended for a Dorado.

4 - Setting the hook. The line needs to pass over the flank of the fish. In other words it must swim directly away from you. If it doesn't just feed line, the pressure from the water on the line will pull the line past it flank and position it. I say position because it isn't set at this stage. Take pressure gradually and once you have full pressure, pump the rod 3 or so times to drive the hook home.

[Capt. Hook]

Thanks Bennie.

I read a survey where the following was compared

Circles Snelled & Unsnelled

J-Hooks Snelled & Unsnelled

Snelled Circles by far had the greatest hook up rate especially with smaller fish and only 3% was gut hooked.

Snelled J-Hooks had the highest gut hook rate around 75%

Standard Rigged J-Hooks hooked up the biggest fish.

[jaenswart]

Very interesting.

I do use circles on some catalina live bait riggs, and that has been working great.

Do you guys use them on other traces as well?

[Capt. Hook]

Jaen, for me circles are in an experimental stage and I ma trying them out in all kinds of rigging. The reason for this thread as I think cirlces hold many advantages but need to be approached differently.
Now it is time to share so that we all can learn

[CLS]

Thanks Mike, I will be watching this thread with great interest, the one thing I have observed/read is not to strike, now that will take some getting used to.

[benniejordaan]

Jaen, I only use circles on live baiting.

Especially fishing for schooling Dorado.

[Bwana]

This is a great thread cos I know a lot of guys are nervous of using circles in case they miss a few fish on the hookup. I took the plunge a few seasons back and vowed to fish a whole year with only circles for tuna.

At first it feels unnatural but by sticking to the basics I learned the following:

1) It is deadly on tuna using the drift & chum tactic, I use a snelled 6/o VMC Sport circle with 1.2m of 80lb fluoro and a small piece (3cm) of clear chafe tube slid down the bite trace to protect the line on the inside the eye of the circle. The snell is as Bennie described, and is crucial to the correct positioning of the hook in the fishes mouth.

2) On the pickup the tuna usually takes the bait and speeds away against minimal drag, ratchet on. Once I am sure the fish is moving AWAY from me I slide the drag lever steadily up to strike drag and the fish is always on. From experience I usually hook 9/10 with this technique. The 6/o circle is usually either VAS in the scissors or top jaw of the fish and I have taken tuna from 5kg - 25kg on this setup. Incidentally the bigger fish hooked in the top of the jaw have always been easier to fight and land than those hooked in the scissors! Stange but true, must be something to do with leverage.

3) I have used the identical trace drifting for Dorado with whole sardines and whole macks and the result has been the same - excellent hookup rate and fewer fish damaged. I have even succeeded with a small pink Yamashita skirt ahead of the circle on the drift bait.

4) In rigging a whole bait I use two different methods -
BRIDLE - I use a short piece of 50lb braid made into a loop and bridle the mack or sard through the eyes with a bait needle and loop the circle through the bridle (as is done when rigging marlin baits). I like the bridle to settle tightly around the bend of the circle so that the hook rides point down. This works for our Dorado drift baits and also as a drop-back bait if sails are around (might go to an 8/o Mustad Ultra Point circle for this use)
NOSE RIGGED - I push the circle up through the bottom and top lips of the sard / mack and make sure the bend and point are proud (facing up) then I take a small cable tie and secure it around the bait's head directly behind the circle so that it prevents the circle hook from retracting back into the bait's head (the same as the RNS guys do on their slide baits)

Both methods have worked for me and are worth trying. I have also brought big Johnnies to the boat on my standard mono traces with circles - that goes to show how effective this technique is if done properly even on toothy critters!

Advice to the guys who are nervous - give it a try and stick to the basics you will have great success and be able to release a lot more fish with this method.

I love circles. That's my 2c worth hope it helps....

[Andre Laas]

I have had the privilege to go on two offshore tagging trips with Bruce Mann from ORI. On these trips they only make use of circle hooks with squashed barbs. The hooks are snelled as Bennie explained, and a pretty standard 2 hook bottom trace is used with an 6/0 on top and 8/0 on the bottom. The purpose of these trips is to compare the reef fish (bottoms) population in exploited and unexploited areas. In the Marine protected areas daily catches often exceeds 150 fish consisting of just about any reef fish you can imagine, so circles works great for bottom fishing!

[benniejordaan]

I have had the privilege to go on two offshore tagging trips with Bruce Mann from ORI. On these trips they only make use of circle hooks with squashed barbs. The hooks are snelled as Bennie explained, and a pretty standard 2 hook bottom trace is used with an 6/0 on top and 8/0 on the bottom. The purpose of these trips is to compare the reef fish (bottoms) population in exploited and unexploited areas. In the Marine protected areas daily catches often exceeds 150 fish consisting of just about any reef fish you can imagine, so circles works great for bottom fishing!

How deep are the reefs you guys fish off?

[Andre Laas]

Hi Bennie

Not too sure actually as they make use of GPS coordinates only, and do not use fish finders at all. Some spots were fairly shallow (15m) and other much much deeper (based on the time it takes for the bait to reach bottom).