Quote:
Originally Posted by bd-
I haven't had the good results with circle hooks that others have had. I have used them with live creek minnows fishing for smallmouth, and I've used them for grouper fishing offshore in salt water.
In both cases, I was disappointed to find that I still had some gut hooked fish - certainly more than 1 in 20. Maybe the ratio was slightly lower than with J hooks but not enough for it to be significant. And I felt like when the fish were hooked in the jaw, the circle hook did more damage coming out than a J hook, at least on the smallies. This is mostly because circle hooks tend to be larger and heavier than the very small, fine-wire hooks I use when freelining minnows for smallmouth.
On top of that, it seems like you miss a few more fish with circle hooks. Not a lot, but a few. That was especially true on the grouper - maybe because their mouths are so big and tough.
Overall, I wasn't impressed enough to switch over to circle hooks. I have gone back to J hooks for live bait, and I just concentrate on a quick hookset to avoid gut hooked fish. I also use very small, fine wire hooks for smallies so that on the rare occasions that one is hooked deep, it minimizes the damage.
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Numerous studies have been done stating the very thing you speak of. I tried circle hooks my last couple of years fishing in Red Sea. Did not care for them....especially fishing for grouper. I have had good success pulling shiners for Smallies with them and I don't recall gut hooking any. But that is not something I do that often either. The panfish article was an interesting read though.
Regards
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