From 9/20/01</font id=blue>
With the number of articles about circle hooks these days you may think that they were some new invention. Every magazine you pick up has an article on using circle hooks for every type of fishing from largemouth bass to 1,000 pound Marlin. The truth of the matter is that circle hooks have been around for over 30 years. The story of the circle hook and where it has ended up today is quite ironic.
Circle hooks were originally designed for longline commercial fishermen. These hooks allowed fish to chew on a bait for long periods of time and when the fish tried to swim away the odd shaped hook would slide out of their stomach and catch right in the corner of their jaw. The is one of the toughest areas in a fishes mouth and once a hook is solidly set in the corner of their jaw it much less likely that it will come out. This self-hooking design was perfect for the longline method of fishing where lines are left unattended for long periods of time and the fish hook themselves. With this new hook longliners reported record catches of fish and the hook was a great success.
At first the recreational fishermen were skeptical about how well these funny looking hooks would work. If you have ever seen a circle hook you certainly can understand why. The point of the hook actually points toward the shank of the hook. The first time I tried them I was very disappointed. I lost every fish I tried to hook and could not understand why. I had not done my homework and read about how the hooks worked I was going reports by the fishermen down in Florida that were using them to target tarpon, Tarpon are known to have a very hard, bony mouth. With these hooks even amateur anglers were able to hook a tarpon perfectly and this made the jobs of professional guides much easier. What I did not realize about the hook is that if you set the hook like you would a normal hook it will pull the hook right out of the fish’s mouth without ever hooking them. The trick is to let the fish pick up the