I love circle hooks. I really like them for flatheads because of the fact that they dont swallow them. There's nothing more depressing than seeing a baby flathead with a hook in its throat that is going to die. I was just wondering how many of yall like circle hooks and what kind yall like to use and what sizes yall like to use for channels, blues and yellows? I like the Eagle Claw laser sharp L197 4/0 for channels and 5/0 for larger channels, blues and small yellows.

for rod & reel i like the gamakatsu circle octopus 8/0 ... i have caught fish as small as 1 1/2 lb on these

for set lines i have been using eagle claw 175 9/0 ... these are stainless steel hooks ... these are the first stainless steel circle hooks that i have found

Not again.


Just kidding.
Mr. Albert, where did you find the 175's at and how much are they?

Scooter,

They have em here...

CLICK

I started using the circle hooks a few years ago, and my last catfish outting, I caught a limit (25) of 3-7lb cats, and never once missed a fish. Every single fish that bit was brought to the boat. No swallowed hooks, the large majority, if not all, were hooked in the corner of the mouth. Gotta love that. I do kinda miss the hookset, and it's like flying with the terrian following autopilot, ya just have to learn to trust it.

scoot, the link that Fishing4Bass posted is where i get mine ... i do like stainless steel ... i started using these 3 or 4 years ago on drop lines in the river & my in-laws complained that they were too hard to get out of the fish's mouth ... i thought that was a good thing myself ... i used these on some jugs for the first time about a month ago with very good results ... these can be sharpened & not ruin the finish

We love circle hooks, and use them on nearly all of our setlines. We use the eagle claw or murstads from academey, in sizes from 12 to 14. They arnt stainless, but work great, we have several of them, that have points that are rusted off, and they still catch fish like crazy. Also the big hooks dont scare off smaller fish. The only drawback I can think of too them, is that if you dont have big enough bait you just empail them.

matt

So y'all use 'em with live and dead bait? If I don't mind asking, what's the best way to hook a dead shad with a circle hook? I'm ready to stop losing fish, as I tend to do. Help a brotha out, lol.

Depends on the size of shad. If your using the frozen shad or shad in the bag, mite as well threw the hook in the water with no bait on it.

If your using fresh dead shad, or cut shad, scale it, and the take a small fillet from it and weave it on the hook.

If you have small shad you really cant get that good of a fillet, so I cut its belly and fold the sides and then hook it threw both folded sides.

I just push the hook through the shad, anywhere for a 3-4" shad and for a bigger one, I will cut it in half and just push a hook through it. With live bait, I will just hook it like you would any other hook.

I see many of you guys use circle hooks successfully for jug and trotlines. We're not allowed to do much of that here in Nebraska, but I do use them for my bank/boat fishing for cats with shrimp and cutbait. My hook up ratio has gone to nearly 100% since I went to circle hooks on my slipsinker rigs a couple years ago.
They take some getting used to, but I think they are the way to go for rod and reel fishing with for cats too.

Got a couple like this the other morning:

I like the way that hook looks,,F4B.
It doesn't quite look like the circle hook designs I have seen with the mustads. I don't like most circle hooks because they usually take too lng for me to get a live perch baited onto the hook. Some of the folks on here seem not to think about this and maybe they don't have to but its very important to me. We fish in backwashes and just off of current breaks where it is very important to get the job done quickly or someone's going to get hurt. I know that some of you guys know what I'm talking about and some that don't. Even more that say why would you do this and for that I really don't have a better answer than that's where I was taught to look for and how to fish rivers with set lines. I am going to oreder a box and give them a shot just because they are stainless. The price is about the same as the 8/0 90ss hooks that we normally use but we can't get them inless than 100 at a time. I use the fishnet company out of LA for them. Mr.Albert....do you think I'll like these hooks. I fish in the Trinity, Brazos and Navasota rivers and a few trotlining lakes aorund here.
Oh well, I'll give them a try.

bump

Thanks for the tips guys. Even though my primary target is carp and buff now, I'm still a catfisherman. I've never really used circles except for live bait, but with everyone having success with circles and me losing more fish than I should, it looks like they need to be in my tackle for sure. THanks brothas!

-Alan

thanks for all the imput