Circle hooks

[Break Away]

Has anyone out there tried circle hooks? What does it do for your hook up ratio? What is the best way to rig them? I know I have relesed fish that have been gut hooked and wondered what the the motality rate was. I would appreciate any information and opinions that I can get.

Thanks

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Offset em. I still like the J's. Have tried em a couple times, and wasn't gettin a good hookup ratio. Best way to keep em from gettin gut hooked is keeping a close eye on the rods. Its inevitable that it will happen. Check the pics from Fishalways post 1-2-07. If you enlarge the shot of the guy in the red ball cap you'll notice I've got my arm down that fishes throat goin after the hook. Not always feesable. Luckily I had Catching with a vice grip on the fish so i could go diggin. The fish revived real spunky thanks to dan and hopefully we'll hear back in a couple years that she was caught @ about 300lbs. The fisheries guys say If the fish is hopelessly gut hooked, they still have a better survival chance if you short clip the leader, and revive and set free. Hooks do rust out, and I've filleted many fish w/ hooks in thier bellys that weren't ours.
Try the circles I'm gonna use em on my live bait rigs from now on cuz my hookup ratio couldn't get any worse.
Good Luck,
Butch

[LIGHTS OUT]

I also have used circle hooks and by hookup ratio has not been the best but I also don't put out enough of them to have a definitive statistic. Keep in mind that circle hooks are used by LL'ers and they absolutely have no problem catching fish. Best bet is to put a few out there for yourself and go to town. Great thing to use in terms of conservation.

Catch 'em up!

[FinalPoint]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

Hooks do rust out, and I've filleted many fish w/ hooks in thier bellys that weren't ours.
Butch

You have?
Never happened to me.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Seriously? Not Swords. But AJ's, Grouper, Snapper, Kings, Barracuda to name a few. One AJ I filleted had a bridled blue runner hook thread and all in his gut and from the looks of it it had been there for a while. Bridle was attached to the skull of the runner!

[LIGHTS OUT]

Originally Posted by FinalPoint

You have?
Never happened to me.

Has happened to me! Maybe you don't catch enough fish!?

[just2fish]

Originally Posted by FinalPoint

You have?
Never happened to me.

ive never found a hook in a sword other than mine. however in the keys last week i cleaning fish (a gray snapper) and found a 4X live bait hook in one's mouth/throat that had been healed over where it went through the flesh. i should have taken a pic of it to show you. the mono was cut with enough length to protrude past his mouth. im guessing he was short when someone else hooked him and just cut the line instead of trying to remove the hook and let it go. he had grown into legal size when we got him. i was gutting, gilling and scaling them for the deep fryer, thats how i found the hook. it had very little rust on it and it wasnt s/s

[catching]

Depends on if you are out for a boat ride or out to catch fish I have never used them but that is mainly because it was highly recommended by one of the best Captains here in S. Florida not to use them for Swords during one of his seminars.

The only 100% way not to gut hook a Sword if you are that concerned about it is not to target them at all

If I remember right TD did some testing with blue sharks up north and let one eat it for a while and it still gut hooked the fish

With all that said it can be done just depends on how many you want to catch, and how many quick releases you want to have per night

[roccsky63]

I agree with most saying U shouldnt use circles for swords. I have used both. I have not gut hooked a swordy yet with a J hook but I have landed quite a few with circles. I use the circles only with runners/live bait rigs. I perfer to use them with sailfish,grouper, snapper rigs too. They do however(circle) prevent most guthooks which saves the fish in the long run. Learn to use a circle right and you'll continue to use them. Just dont yank the line to set the hook, let it eat it then reel up. Keep that line tight.

[Gaitor]

I caught a runner in the Keys a while back that had a 3/0 hook in it's mouth and had apparently broken the light line the fisherman was using. The hook was still shiny with no rust, but where it was in the fish's mouth, the acid in the fish's system had all but eaten through the metal between the barb and the shank. Mother Nature's way of helpin' 'em out I guess.
By the way ... I love circle hooks ... just had to get used to the idea of not tryin' to cross their eyes with a hookset

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Originally Posted by catching

Depends on if you are out for a boat ride or out to catch fish I have never used them but that is mainly because it was highly recommended by one of the best Captains here in S. Florida not to use them for Swords during one of his seminars.

The only 100% way not to gut hook a Sword if you are that concerned about it is not to target them at all

If I remember right TD did some testing with blue sharks up north and let one eat it for a while and it still gut hooked the fish

With all that said it can be done just depends on how many you want to catch, and how many quick releases you want to have per night

Baby killer Still feelin good about how strong that pup revived up last night. He was kickin up a storm whan you finally freed willy. Cool chit Looks like I'm Grouper fishin Sat and Sun. Whatever happens for next weeknights keep me in mind. I'm due for a bigger fish

[Capt. Art]

Metal submerged in water without oxygen rust very very slowly. Then need to be exposed to air and also be wet to rust quickly.

Most hooks wear a hole in the fish and fall out during feeding or other activity.

I have caught many makos and billfish with hooks in their mouths that are worn and rusty, but all had lots of "meat" left and would not be rusting out soon.

None of the fish with single hooks in them seemed to have significant problems unless the area around the hook got infected to a large degree.

I suspect that circle hooks would stay in the fish's jaw longer than J hooks because of the small space between the barb and the shank, but because it is in the jaw, it will not do much damage to the overall health of the fish.