The Reel Story on Circle Hooks
Greetings!
Well I’m 8 chapters down in the first ever Skipper Meggs eBook and I am eagerly awaiting time to pass by so that the Fishing and Reef Tour Specialists can make their way to Weipa for this year’s fishing escapades.
I should first of all apologise to those of you who were looking forward to a continuation of the life cycle series but before we weigh anchor on Sunday 25th May I thought it might be a good opportunity to discuss the aspects of using circle hooks.
Those of you who have been following this blog for some time now may recall me preaching the benefits of using this particular type of hook to save gut-hooking (and therefore almost certainly killing) Black Jewfish.
The reason why this is the case is that the humble circle hook will almost always set in a fish’s mouth rather than anywhere else that may cause harm.
But then, I am probably telling the end of the story without covering off the beginning.
You see, there is one thing that fisherman can thank the Long Lining industry for and that is circle hooks.
Yes, long liners have single handedly stripped the sea of thousands of huge sea creatures but one of their tools of trade is the circle hook.
Hmmm… Why is this so?
Well Long Liners are just that, a great big long line with a whole bunch of hooks and bait on it and the thing is they have no one at the end of the line to set the hook.
And they don’t need anyone because the circle hook sets itself in place.
But how?
Well it works like this. The fish first of all takes the bait and starts to move away. Someone using traditional J hooks at this stage would feel the bite and start to pull back on the line to set the hook and this is why a lot of fish are gut hooked.
What you will find is that if you strike a fish when you feel the bite with a circle hook you would almost certainly miss the strike every time because you would pull the hook out of the fish’s mouth.
When the fish takes the bait they swallow it and move away. As they move away the water pressure will gently pull the fishing line into the corner of the fish’s mouth and will help pull the hook up from the gut and into the corner of the mouth to set.
So there you have it. To catch a fish with a circle hook the trick is to do nothing! Resist all temptation of striking and the fish will hook itself. What could be more simple?
If you still not convinced try this test with a circle hook.
Attach a circle hook to some line and throw the hook into an empty bucket and retrieve it very slowly.
Almost every time you will see that it wraps itself around the lip of the bucket.
Now try and do the same thing by jerking the line - oops! Nowhere close to catching the bucket.
So there you have it.
The problem with using circle hooks is that fisherman tend to still strike when a fish takes the bait. The opportunity though is to do nothing and to allow the fish to hook themselves.
To overcome this issue the best way to fish with circle hooks is to leave your rod in a holder and on a very low drag that will let the fish take the bait. Once you see the familiar bend in the rod you should be able to take it out of the holder and set the hook.
The best knot to use with circle hooks is the snood knot. This knot will definitely increase your circle hook catch rates as it assists the hook to land in the corner of the fish’s mouth.
Simply pass a line through the eye of the hook and wrap it around the shaft of the hook several times until it lines up with the point of the hook.
Once there, take the line and pass it back through the eye of the hook and there you have it – the snood knot.
By the way there is conjecture amongst the fishing experts that indicate that you shouldn’t use chemically sharpened circle hooks as the pointy end may very well set in the gut of the fish by accident.
Until next week.
Sea you soon,
Skipper Meggs
www.skippermeggs.com