Circle hooks! Any Good

Member Joined: Jul 25, 2006 Posts: 52

Hi, Are Circle hooks such as SureSet actually any good and do they out beat the classic aberdeen style hook. They appear to be slightly expensive than normal hooks. Also how wouuld you bait them up as they dont seem to come with long shanks.

Cheers

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:18 am

i havent tried circle hooks, well not ones from the shelf i tried making my own after a whity bent it up. rather than bending the tip of the hook i bend the shank, heat it with a lighter and bend witha couple pairs of pliers until you have the desired angle, i have to admit the fish seem to get hooked in the scissors more often but you do miss more bites.... maybe its just me lol

Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 90 Location: out to sea

Whilst up late and very very bored I watched some of Mr Rex Hunt (Aussie fishing celeb) TV shows, he was very much a user of circle hooks...Something like "ah the old circle hook does it again folks" was his comment after playing a huge fish to his boat!! If Rex Hunt reckons they are good then there must be something in it, after all he spends his career fishing in front of cameras...and we all know what happens if you take a camera fishing...you catch nothing and lose lots!!!! (in my experience anyway)

Occasional Joined: Dec 28, 2007 Posts: 154 Location: Barry

I use circle hooks all the time when bass fishing and to be fair they are really very good, almost every fish is caught through the lip or side of the mouth and very easy to release with the minimum of stress.

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:10 pm

I have to admit I myself have never used them not that Im afraid of trying something new but normal and offset hooks have served me well over the years and I see no need for change. keith big grin

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:35 pm

I've been using semi-circles for bass since getting some advice from Eccles earlier this year and used smaller ones for smaller fish prior to that. Main advantage is the consistent lip-hooking and enhanced hook rates, downside is that you struggle to get a worm on. Good article on the link below -
http://igfaanglersdigest.com/how-to-fish-circle-hooks.html

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:40 am

When I fished Alaska for halibut the skipper used circle hooks. He said the fish grind thier food and work the hook in deep. It's hard to watch your pole dance while they're munching but, when the poles points to the bottom you got one. I've been reading about the competition fishers around Florida using the also. They say they get more consisant hook -ups and more likely to hook in the mouth for easier releases. I've got some tied up that I plan on using for salmon in the next couple of weeks.

Occasional Joined: Apr 09, 2008 Posts: 137 Location: kent

i did try circle hooks for the first time and found they did seem to lip hook a lot more often than aberdeens a month ago so i still use them more often for smaller baits