Circle Hooks

[Jay R]

A quick question for the experts. Has anyone used circle hooks for there slip bobber or deadstick rods for fishing walleyes? If so whats your report? I used them a little this summer and liked the results. Any feedback would be great. Thanks

JR

[fiskyknut]

I used them over on the Red river cattin', they worked pretty good, but I'm sticking with the Kahle styles.

fisky

[Guest]

They work well but with any circle hook you need to resist setting the hook like your a bass master in the brush.

The dead stick should be of longer then average length and a slow taper, loose action that loads the rod slowly with steady tension. They basically set the hook on themselves.

Circles work well on tip-ups for pike. When they are on the run you squeeze the line and but on the brakes slow. Once you feel the weight you can set the hook if you can't resist doing so, but odds are they are hung already.

It takes a bit of experimentation and control to use circles effectively but they work well in many situations.

------------------
"Ed on the Red"
Backwater Guiding Service
[email protected]
fishingminnesota.com/ed-on-the-red/

[Guest]

I use circle hooks 100% of the time on slip-bobber rigs and 50% on my dead rods on boucers during the summer.

On slip-bobbers, reel the slack line out, point the rod tip down and at the bobber. Just gently lift on the rod keeping a bend in it. Let the fish fight the weight. Don't reel it for a couple of seconds. They get hooked when they try to throw the hook.

Use two sizes larger of hook than you normally use. I use #1's most of the time. That is due to the smaller gap size.

Same thing for dead sticks. When you see the rod bend, watch the rod tip bounce a couple of times, take it out of the holder, keep the bend in it all times and reel it in slowly.

Buy a quality brand of hooks. Never try to save bucks on hooks.

Fish will generally be hooked on the edges of the mouth. Most of the time you will see the hook.

I haven't used them on the ice.

------------------
Kevin Neve's Devils Lake Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/kevin-neve-guiding/
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 701-473-5411 or 701-351-4989
Minnewaukan ND

[Guest]

My fishing buddy and I use circle hooks exclusively when live-bait fishing for muskies. They tend to engulf even a large treble easily, resulting in injured and possibly dead fish. Since we only catch and release (okay, I may keep the first one I catch over 50"!), this is an unacceptable risk. Since switching to circle hooks, every single fish we've landed has been hooked neatly in the corner of the mouth. You may lose a few more until you get the hang of it, but it's definitely a good tradeoff in my mind.