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[chomperman]

Hi everyone just wanted to see what everyone's thoughts and experiences with circle hooks have been. I have been reading more and more about circle hooks and how its better for survival rates and less likely to snag fish.

Do most of you use them when you fish for trout or kokanne in our local lakes and freshwater rivers?  Do I need to use a Snell tie in order for them to work properly?

[Easywater]

I was watching part of a Canadian fishing show on Saturday (during breaks in the football) and the guy was using circle hooks.
I believe he was fishing for catfish in the East somewhere and was talking about how they are hooked.

Hmm, after reading the text from the website below, he may have been referring to regular hooks when talking about deep hooking.
Circle hooks seem to encourage hooking fish in the mouth.

"Fishful Thinking" episode 250: http://www.fishfulthinking.ca/episodes.htm

[RalphH]

You can use circle hooks in many applications and flies I tied worked well for salmon this past fall when I was trying to avoid foul hooking fish. AFAIK circle hooks were developed in the long line commercial fishery to reduce the time needed to remove fish from hooks. Fish ingest the baited hook but the bent in point seldom sets in the throat or gut. As it pulls out it pivots and hooks the fish in the mouth of jaw hinge. Deep hooking happens only 10% of the time relative to baited j hooks.

[ByteMe]

I use them for pinks in the rivers when they stack up, to avoid snagging them. The way to fish circle hooks is not to set the hook when your line tightens, just slowly raise your rod (which is pretty hard to do as it defeats your natural instincts to strike), as the fish feels the pressure he will turn and set the hook, works well if can resist the urge to strike, takes some getting used to

[chomperman]

Thanks for the responses. I think I will give it a shot this spring and also wanted to try it for my 3 year old to use. They don't tend to really pay attention to the bobber so they are usually late on setting a hook. I wonder if circle hooks would be an easy way to compensate for their delayed response to the trout taking the hook. I can just tell him to start reeling in his line instead.

[RalphH]

for setting a circle hook 2 things I found worked was to keep the point of the rod pointed at the fish and smoothly draw the rod straight back or pull the line back smoothly back in the same fashion. I have read that with bait it's best just to start reeling in - don't set the hook, just retrieve.

[dufflayer]

When catching burbot, it is a lot easier to pull a circle hook out of their gullet as opposed to a gami or siwash. That's my two cents.