Circle Hooks for Bass

[Adam Grace]

Circle hooks for Largemouth Bass.

I recently tied up some crystal buggers on circle streamer hooks for the bass in my ponds. I fished them the day before the rains came. I caught a fair amount of bass but I also missed quite a few as well.

I understand that setting the hook with a circle hook (CH) is much different than a simple "J" style hook. A CH requires a steady pull to set thge hook into the corner of the mouth. I tried a steady pull and I tried a simple strip set and those two would work sometimes. I missed some nice strikes but I managed to catch a nice 2lb bass and a large bluegill, the bluegill was hookd through the middle of it's bottom jaw


This is that 2lber, I never saw where he was hooked, the hook came out as soon as I lipped him.

Have any of you guys tried circle hooks for bass

I never landed any real small bass but those 1lbers I was catching are fairly common. Maybe I was missing the small bass that did not have enough weight for me to pull against and set the CH.

What do you guys think

[Darian]

Hmmmm,..... Lemme see..... Has a really productive pond to fish.... Caught several bass (....One about 2 pounds ). Lost several on the strike.... ) All in one day and close to home.... No fish were injured on release.... Unless, of course, they weren't released..... :P :P Bass/Bluegill cooked in beer batter sure do taste good with hush puppies and asaparagus :P :P )

Weelllll now,..... Let's add this up..... A good time was had by all. Doesn't sound a lot different than using "J" hooks... . Doesn't seem to be much of a problem there to consider.

[Adam Grace]

Darian, lemme put it this way I landed ten fish instead of twenty!

Circle hooks did not work as nearly as well as J hooks would have.

I know that complaining about ONLY landing ten fish is silly but I would hope that a newer fad like circle hooks would produce more fish.

[David Lee]

The flaw lies within the medium you have chosen ...... Flyfishing .

A circle hook , by design , should be INGESTED (covered in bait , swallowed , then the tension on the line PULLS the hook into the corner of the mouth) , the fish shouldn't have the option of spitting out the hook . This only works well when the fish has the hook IN the mouth , and then turns away ..... in the right situation , a circle will cut into bone (ever see what a can-opener does ??) . I would think for Tarpon , Snook , and toothy critters that are gluttons (inhaling whatever they eat) , the circle would be the way to go .

Freshwater fish rarely "swallow" a fly (except egg flies ....) - so the concept of a circle hook being better than a "J" hook doesn't really apply . If your fish takes the fly , it will USUALLY reject the fly , because it ain't food . You want (need !) a WIDE-GAPE "J" hook to stick 'em right now !

Glo-bugs , and other single egg patterns , tend to be taken deeply by fish that are in the throes of gluttoness feeding ... so a circle hook might be a good choice in that situation (unless you want to get shit from your fellow man for killing Steelhead ...) .

I haven't used circle hooks yet , and am not likely to do so anytime soon . On paper , the design seems like a no-brainer .... but then again , a BumbleBee shouldn't be able to fly ....

So what the heck do I know ?? :P

David

[Adam Grace]

I agree with you David. You explained your point very well. I was thinking along the same lines but a failed to explain my thoughts as well as you.

I think that the bass has to be very committed to eating the fly to suck in the fly deep inside the mouth instead of a sort of nibble/suck on the fly like they sometimes do, out of curiousity. If a bass would grab the circle hook bugger with malicious intent and turn in an opposite direction from the fishermen then the circle hook will be more likely to set into the corner of the mouth correctly. Don't ya think?

I think the circle hooks have been more productive for striper fishing because stripers seem to me to act more agressivly towards our flies. In my experience stripers smash the fly hard. Most likely when they slam a fly like that they probably shake their heads. That type of grab would tend to make setting a circle hook easier.

I will try tying a larger fish imitation streamer instead of a leechy type pattern. Fish imitations are usually retrieved faster than leechy patterns like a wooly bugger. Maybe that faster retrieve will trigger more of an aggressive strike from the bass which will make setting th CH easier. I will tie some of the fish imitation CH flies today and fish them as soon as the weather improves.

I will keep you guys up to date with my little experiement.

[Darian]

One thing to consider in favor of using circle hooks, regardless of whether fish are lost on strikes, is a very real benefit. That is low mortality rates after release.

Recent materials I've read suggest that a larger number of fish released after being deeply hooked with a barbless hook do not survive for very long after release... . The articles indicate that fish are rarely hooked deeply using a circle hook and, as a result, almost all fish released survived longer (assumming equal/proper handling in each case).

One last benefit is that circle hooks are not easily snagged on underwater obstacles. So, there's a reduction in the number of flies lost during an outing....