Put in at Hilton and fished mid lake pulling freelines and PBs off points. Never found them really thick, but it was a good steady pick for a good part of the morning. Got about a dozen or so with 4 or 5 keepers. Kept a 23" and 26" fish for the grill along with a couple of 6 or 7 pound cats that hit on the shallow side planer. Pulling in about 25 or 30 ft or water seemed to be the best for the stripers.
Had some pretty fiesty baits and had a problem with the barb of he hook coming back into their head worse than I have ever seen. Seems like circle hooks are even worse than J hooks since that barb is bent in like it is. I got aggrivated and started putting a small piece of plastic from a soft bait on there and never had that problem again. It was a little tricky at first trying to hold the bait still while holding the hook and putting the plastic on the tip, but it worked great.
How well do the circle hooks work with live bait & stripers?
Been thinking about trying circles, but my striper fishing buddies on Santee say they don’t work as well as J hooks.
They work fine for me fishing live bait. It took some time to gain confidence in them, but it’s all I use any more. I’ve missed fish with J hooks and I’ved missed fish with circle hooks. If I had to pick one and if I was fishing for food and nothing else mattered except trying to catch some meat, I’d probably say, IMO, a J hook is better. But, to me anyway, the difference between using the 2 is so small that the benefits of using circle hooks outway the dissappointment of missing a fish now and then.
My $.02 is that 39 inch striper Sunday night was landed with a 2/0 Eagle Claw circle hook stuck right in the corner of it’s mouth where it’s supposed to be.
I’d rather fish than eat.
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
Tim, try putting the piece of soft plastic on the other side of the bait so it can’t slide up the shank and get the tip of the hook turn toward it. That will leave the tip exposed to hook the fish.
I’d rather fish than eat.
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
