ok fellas, i have heard alot of you guys talking about whether or not to set the hook in given situations using bigger circle hooks.. here's my topic of debate.. This is my 2nd summer catching larger blues on my home lake, (usually a crappie man) but i have fallen in love with the big blue. when i say big i mean we typically haul 2-4 fish in the 30# range and loads of 3-10#fish in a night. so i feel like we are catching what most consider to be fish of decent size. we finished last summer with 4 fish over 40# which i am quite proud of.
ALL OF THESE BLUES WERE HOOKED WITH CIRCLE HOOKS USING A GOOD STIFF, SWEEPING TYPE HOOKSET. this is my subject of curiosity. I lost several good fish while trying to (not set the hook) and just apply pressure while reeling because i always see some of you guys advising others to do so.. my question is this.. what is the thought process behind this approach. setting the hook vs. not setting the hook. i always felt as though i should use a steady sweeping type hookset, and lost very few fish this way. But, i did try the other method and seemed to loose several. the sweeping hookset seemed to bury the hook in the corner of the mouth, and the other.. I just never felt confident with.. what are your thoughts???

reel it down till the rod hits the water

A sweeping somewhat slow set is what you want, not a fast jerk. Your method is right. Some do in fact just reel down on them but I like a soft but firm sweep.

WE DO BOTH...

Depends on whether it is a true circle or not. True circle, reel only. If not, you can do the sweep hookset. The sweep is only a slow pull anyhow. Still allows the circle hook to come out of the mouth and catch the corner.

I engage the reel (if you use the clickers) and let the rod load up, then reel down (not too fast though). Also gotta make sure those suckers are very sharp or you'll lose some fish. It's good to keep a file with you and hit em every now and then for best results. Another good thing is to not overload the saddle of the hook.

What do you mean by overloading the saddle of the hook. I'm kinda new to catfishing too. or at least fresh water catfishing. Down at the coast we never really had to worry about setting the hook usually the fish did it for us.

Make sure you don't put too much bait to the point the hook cannot make a clean hookset when the pressure is applied. You need lots of hook showing so the bait doesn't foul up the hook penetration

once i have the fish on a tight line i give it a good tug too bury the hook

If you fish team catfish double action hooks you can do what ever fits you best!

My two cents, My hook-up ratio went way up when I stopped setting the hook. I just engauge the reel, reel down, and apply strong steady pressure with a slow sweeping motion and start reeling. I fish with the clickers on free-spool. In my opinion the ones I loose now are the smaller ones that cant get the whole bait in their mouths. I usually go with bigger chunks of bait. Just an opinion. I use true circle hooks, from the 4/0-8/0 sizes. I've never tried the double action hooks from team catfish but have heard nothing but good things about them and they're definitely on my shopping list for the big kittys this winter. Like flight 71 said, with those you could go either way. Hope this helps.

I have never used circle hooks until last night while we were drift fishing using shad, the guy we were with (chris waters) fellow TFFer showed me how he does it that gives him the best results, Just wait for the hit and reel in (not fast) and if your hooks are sharp you should get good hook sets.

Bama, agreed 100%.. and that is generallyu the hook set i apply, especially when they take it like a big cat should..when the rod doubles over, its hard not to pull back. But i have got the method down pretty well, it did take some getting used to. I have caught myself a couple times trying to jerk their face off, and generally speaking those fish were lost.. but as soon as the rod bends, the hook is prety much set. I just give it a little extra to puch through jaw bone in case thats where the hook is. Thanks for the input fella's. Good luck

Start using cirlce hooks and they do most of the work!

But i like to yank thier face off