Circle Hooks

[Rockfish9]

I started using circles about 20 years ago, and my results were terrible, I didn't like them very much, they cost me a lot of fish. most of those early ones were Gami's or eagle claws, they have come a long way, and I've learned a lot about them and how to use them..IMHO The Owner 5/0 or 6/0 Matu light in line is the best hook I have used for live lining eels,but bait size will dictate hook size, so you need to have several sizes at your disposal, it's also a great live line( pogies or Mac's) hook in the 7/0 or 8/0 size, I've tried just about everyone's in various styles and the Owner beats them all IMHO , I prefer the thinner wire because in my experience it has less tendency to split the nose on the smaller baits that are more productive when there is a lot of fire in the water, the thinner wire also allows for multiple fish to be caught on a single eel, something that can be difficult with a thicker hook that leaves a massive hole in the snout of the squirmer.. the Gamakatsu is a close second, but tends to still gut hook a lot of fish on some nights...the Gami's also have a nasty habit of some how ending up back in the body of the eel, more so than anyone else's ..circle hooks are a great tool that take some style changes to get used to, they do gut hook less fish and also allow for easy release without removing the fish from the water if that is your thing, something that I've tried to do more often over the last few years.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by tlapinski

For eeling, I really like the Gamakatsu 3604XX in sizes 6/0 and 7/0. It has the thicker wire I prefer with eels to resist tear-outs on the cast. The Mustad 39944-BN is a good option as well and is what I use for chunking in size 10/0. The only drawback I see on the Mustad for eeling is the thinner wire. Another really good Mustad option is the 39950NP-BN. It has a thicker wire than the 39944-BN but costs roughly twice as much per hook.

^^^^^ This

[bloocrab]

Hook thickness becomes more important surf vs. boat.... you tend to use a lot more umphh...when casting from shore, hence the thinner gauged hook being more of an issue. From the boat, it's mostly a heavy to light lob of the eel, not so much of a "whipping" cast....IMO-

[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by bloocrab

Hook thickness becomes more important surf vs. boat.... you tend to use a lot more umphh...when casting from shore, hence the thinner gauged hook being more of an issue. From the boat, it's mostly a heavy to light lob of the eel, not so much of a "whipping" cast....IMO-

yes, that is true to a degree, most( location dependent) times long casts aren't needed anyway, and any one that has fished an eel knows those things do not cast well to begin with, but the way the hook actually goes into the bait makes a big difference, the design of most circle hooks makes it difficult to insert into the bait, some are just awful, thus leaving a hole bigger than we like, unless the bait is really big, you risk damage to the bait when you bait up, and live chumming will occur, I've had guys toss a dozen eels into the water.. unattached, mainly due to hook choice and or the way they hooked the bait,the second problem I have found is because of the nature of the circle hook, thick hooks have trouble penetrating the hard cartilage or jaw bone, resulting in a higher miss and lost fish ratio, and those fish hooked in the soft tissue of the jaw hinge, often button hole and are lost as well...thinner hooks with good temper( cheap hooks bend, break and get dull) do not have that issue, I've had to actually cut the hook shank on some they were so well imbedded and remove them in 2 pieces, like everything else we do, no one hook is the absolute answer, conditions and location are the deciding factor, just like no one rod or reel combo is not the absolute answer... "we the people" are the real engineers, and it's discussions like this that will get us the products we need for our particular circumstance, it will also help explain our successes and failures and at the same time, do the least amount of damage to the resource..

this is a good thread.