Circle Hooks and Bobbers

[JBMasterAngler]

My 3 year old daughter is going to catch her 1st fish in 3 weeks (either a smallmouth bass or brook trout). I plan to rig her up with a bobber and worm, but being so young, she obviously doesn't understand the concept of setting the hook. I figured a small swedish pimple with a treble hook would be best, but am starting to wonder if circle hooks have the same effectiveness under a bobber?

[goblueM]

circle hooks would be far superior, they'd save you a lot of trouble. You don't want to mess around with a swallowed treble hook

Hope your daughter has fun!

[Ed Carlson]

Fine wire wide gap circles work very well on floats.

Go one size larger on the circle hook in comparison to the same size conventional hook you would use otherwise use.

The pressure of pulling the float down most often sets the hook in the corner of the fish's mouth. Just coach the user to reel on the take, and not jerk set the hook.

I very often go barbless on my circle hooks as fish seldom shake off, even barbless.

[Jim Almquist]

How about a fine wire with a long shank and pinch the barb down.

[Chode2235]

I love using circle hooks for smallmouths when we fish off the docks on lake Vermilion. We use the Gamy octopus hooks in size 4 under a small bobber and a big leech on them.

Its a great way for the small ones to catch some big fish, without worrying about deep hooking one of those beautiful fish.

[JBMasterAngler]

Excellent! Thanks for all the info. Yeah, she's got the reeling in part down pretty good, it'll just be letting the bobber sit there that she'll struggle with

[wayne123]

Keep in mind if she just wants to play set her up with a bobber and sinker with no hook. You can let her do whatever she wants with no worry of her getting hooked. She probably will not catch a fish but if she has fun that is what counts.

[Shawn Kellett]

I started using circles with the kids when they were that age and they work great! Out of hundreds of bluegills caught every year we may have 1 that's hooked deep.

Do two things with them:

1. Bend the hook so the off-set is inline with the shank. This will make it work better (not gut-hooking).

2. Pinch the barb down. Since the kids don't really pull that hard sometimes the hook doesn't get penetration beyond the barb. With a circle the barb is redundant anyway and is not really needed because of the shape of the point.

[Tator2k]

I just had a 7" bluegill inhale a circle hook I was dropshotting with. All I could see coming out of his mouth was the two ends of line.

[JBMasterAngler]

I actually anticipate her playing around. So I'll be the one keeping an eye on the bobber and just getting her ready if/when the bobber goes under. This particular lake, you can easily catch over 200 smallies in a day, but surprisingly the shorefishing from the access is usually pretty poor (except for brook trout). I've purposely set it up to have her 1st fish be caught here as it has alot of sentimental meaning...plus, her name is Brooklyn, so to catch a "brook-lyn" trout would be classic! Once again, thanks for the responses, lot's of good stuff.

[bobbymalone]

I just had a 7" bluegill inhale a circle hook I was dropshotting with. All I could see coming out of his mouth was the two ends of line.

Sheephead seem to have a knack for inhaling circle hooks.

I find myself using them more and more for live bait fishing and they work as advertised, with a few exceptions of course.

[BTL]

1. Bend the hook so the off-set is inline with the shank. This will make it work better (not gut-hooking).

Yeah, this is important. Offset circle hooks gut hook much, much more frequently than inline circles. I try to buy inlines if I can, but if they come offset I just bend them like you said.

[Brad B]

the inline circle hooks I recommend are the :

L702 lazer claw circle hook by eagle claw(sizes from 12 to 3/0)

#265 Gamakatsu inline circle hook.(sizes from 6 to 8/0)

if I can't find these I will use the gamakatsu 208 circle hook. it has a slight off set but I have had good luck with very few deep hooks when using them.