Who loves them, and who hates them? Also how do people feel about spoon pluggers? Just learning the fishing ethics...Eddie

Just caught my 2nd 40incher in less than 7 days on circle hooks. The rigs seemed to hinder the fishes ability to swim and live long. The circle hooks kept the bait in great shape not to mention a perfect hookset both times. I am convinced and will never go back.

kelly

I have had better hookup percentages with circle hooks. All you need is a circle hook and a rubber band and the sucker lives forever. all hooks are either in the lip or you miss. I love them. Will never go back to quick strike rigs.

Later

Jim

LISTENED TO ROGER SABOTA TALK ABOUT THEM LAST NITE AT A MUSKIE INC. MEETING,HE'S A FAN OF THEM.

with circle hooks are you tying mono directly to it, if you are using sevenstrand what knot are you tying? thanks

I've tried them with a 90# mono leader, and a standard 36" strand leader. With the latter, I cut off the snap and either knot it, or use a crimp. Have had no failures either way.

I feel I get more hits, and hooking percentage is about 50 - 75%. Overall, I get more fish.

Hope this helps.

Tight Lines All,

Shep

Shep,

Are you just hooking them through the lips or what? Do you let the muskie take the sucker for a long time, how are you fishing circle hooks?

Curious,

Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com

Get an old coat hanger and make a small bend at the end. Insert rubber band and slide it through the nostrols of the sucker. Then take the hook and slide it through one loop and twist its tight. once tight conect the other end of the hook to the remaining rubber band loop. now the fish can swim and last forever or until a big slob hits it. Depending on the size of sucker i usually waith about 15 minutes. Never had one gut hooked yet. I hope this answers your questions.

Later

Jim

Hi Steve,

I run a rubber band through the nostrils, just like with the Herbie rig. Put the ends of the rubber band over the hook, and then twist it until it is tight against the fish. Then run the hook back under the rubber band to "lock" it in place. This keeps the sucker firmly attached.

I usually run two rigs, one in the front, one in the back, and both with rubber core sinkers(1/2-1 oz., depending on suckr size) I run the rear deeper than the front. The front I run about 4-6' down. No bobber. Just put the reel on the clicker, free spool.

You'll know when a fish hits it, you'll hear it. Or if in the front, you'll probably see it slam it(really awesome). Pick up the rod, keep it in free spool, and just keep a little tension on the line. Let the fish run with it if it wants to. Don't put too much tension on it, just enough to keep the line slack free. It may surface, and lolligag around a little. Or it may go straight to the bottom. You'll feel it as it chomps on the sucker to kill it, and turn it. I've been waiting 10-15 minutes. You'll kinda have to learn when it's ready. You'll feel some really agressive chomping, and then the fish may move off a little.

When you're ready, just start reeling. Don't set the hook, just reel. If all goes well, the sucker is swallowed, the band breaks, and the hook slides out, catching the corner of the mouth for a solid, safe hook up.

I had one last year that I saw hammer the sucker, and go straight down with it in 8'. Could just barely see it on the bottom. Although I normally wouldn't do this all the time, I was able to put just a little more tension on it to actually bring it up a foot or so off the bottom several times. I was able to see the sucker sideways in it's mouth, then let it go back down. about 5 minutes later, I lifted it again, this time the sucker was turned, with just half of it sticking out the mouth. About five minutes later, I couldn't see the sucker at all. It was time! Just started reeling. You can feel the hook slide out a little when the band breaks, then feel the whole weight of the fish when the hook sets itself. Less than a minute later, I had a nice fat 43" in the net!

One more thing. Some of the circle hooks may come with a little offset, the point is kinda twisted out a little. Not sure if this could potentially gut hook, but I bend it back so it sits flat.

Hope this helps,

Tight Lines All,

Shep

Thanks Shep,

I kind of figured that you were waiting a long time to "set" the hooks but I wasn't sure. I'll have to try that next time out and see how it works.

Lately, I've been dragging a rubber banded quick strike rig and have had muskies come up and rub on the sucker! I run them close to the boat and have watched them do this several times, on different lakes. What gives with this? They'll come to the sucker, eyeball it, popping their jaws like they're going to hit it and then the *^&#% muskie will just rub their entire body length against the sucker. It drives both me, the clients and the sucker nuts!!!

I had a muskie do this last week, after a couple times, I could see another muskie down there with it. I figured "Oh boy, with the competition, one of them will take that sucker for certain." WRONG!!! They both played cat & mouse with the thing for over 20 minutes as we circled the area. It didn't matter what we did, jig the sucker, let it go deep, bring it shallow, drop cratures down by them, run lures on figure 8's over the top, they'd just rub on that darned sucker!

Has anyone else seen this and what can I do, if anything?

Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com

Steve,

Nope, never seen that rubbing thing! LOL. I can imagine it would drive a person nuts. I have seen the ski sit just below the sucker before. The suckers sometimes just freeze, like they are hiding! I imagine they are scared straight.

Usually I try to just twitch them a little. Sometimes it triggers, sometimes it doesn't. Then try and swap the rear and the front. Bring that dude in from the rear, and all of a sudden it's like fresh meat!!! Either the ski clobbers it before it knows it, or it sees the ski first, goes nuts, and then the ski hits it.

Tight Lines All,

Shep

Am I missing something? I listened to a rather well known speaker last winter talk about circle hooks and his point of contention with circle hooks was, where's the fun? He said you don't get to set the hook and can only slowly reel the fish in not knowing if you have the hook "set" in its mouth yet the whole way up to the net. Where's the big fight and the fun?

Since I have not tried this method his logic sounds righ on to me. Am I missing something? At least when a quick strike rig gets hit, you can give it the monster hook set and "fight" the fish.