Circle hooks and Catfishing question

Did a little experiment the other night - fishing for bullhead. I used circle hooks, my buddy used plain old J-hooks.

The lake was real rough, so we had plenty of trouble trying to tell a hit from wave action (meaning increased chance to gut-hook a fish).

3 of the 4 my friend caught were gut-hooked. All 4 of mine were nicely hooked in the corner of the mouth. 2 of them, I didn't even know I had a fish on until I started reeling.

For me from now on, when I'm after bullhead or catfish, I'm going to be using circle hooks.

I use 3/0 tru turn hooks for rod and reel. They hook and hold real well. have yet to gut hook a fish with one of them it usually sticks in the roof of their mouth. my experience with circle hooks is you need to let the hook do the work. If you try and set the hook you will pull the hook out of their mouths more often than not. my uncle uses them pretty regularly and he complains about missing them when he goes to set the hook alot. we went to webbers falls a few weeks ago and he got tired of missing them and I gave him one of the tru turns and he had a better hook up rate after that. if you use circle hooks on trott lines and jugs they work real well but for personal preference I use a 3/0 or bigger. good luck and good fishing.

There are advocates of the circle hooks , these are fisherman that have good results using them mostly due to the fact that they know how to tie e'm. That was my problem at first, from my experience usually choosing a bigger size meant better results. on winter fishing I like e'm , but on a fast bite we do well on octopus & khales.

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Originally Posted by Rookie12

I mainly target big cats and don't really like circle hooks. i sometimes use them on slip floats, but never on a bottom rod. Big fish hit too lite too often and you can't hook them with a circle hook. I prefer a 5/0-8/0 Gamaktsu octopus hook, not an octopus circle hook. They are super strong and have a relatively light wire which helps penetration. I use cricles exclusively for live bait striper fishing though. I've hardly ever seen a striper hit a bait soft. Whn they pull th rod down, they're hooked. I like to feel the weight of the cat just for a second and then cross his eyes. I've lost some monsters to circle hooks. just my style!

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Thank you, finally someone that agrees with me. Circle hooks are great when the fish are aggresive, but let's face it fish arent always agressive. I have used circle hooks alot of times and have trouble with hookups if the fish are hitting lightly. Most of the time if I switch to a Gamakatsu octopus hook I start getting hookups. Don't get me wrong I like to use circles when they are biting like mad, but if they're a little slow I go to the Octopus hooks. I'm fishing the King Kat classic at Milford reservoir in a few weeks. Whwn my partner and I were fishing tournaments to qualify I honestly don't think we would have caught enough fish on circles to win. The fish were just too lethargic. I agree circles are great for catch and release, although I did gut hook a flathead with one once, but I think he ran towards me and had time to swallow it.

I like the kahle style. Dont have much problem no matter the mood of the fish. The only ones I miss alot are the small ones because I never use anything smaller than a 6/0 hook,had the smaller hooks straitened on me a few times. Wont happen anymore.