Fishing Forum

I have been experimenting with the (new to me) circle hooks for the past year or so. I've never used them in the past until recently.

I bought a package of circle hooks in size 8 a couple of weeks ago. I have used them in sizes 4,2,1,1/0,2/0,3/0 for catfish, walleye, white bass, and trout with pretty good success both on the bottom and under a float.

So far, I have had problems with them in 2 situations. One - when I tried the size 4 earlier this year drop shotting using the Mojo system for smallmouth and just recently, the size 8 for perch. While fishing with JedBurton I missed a couple that should have been hooked up. Jed and I discussed it briefly and he pointed out that he didn't think cirlce hooks would work with perch because they have too hard of a mouth.

OK, a few questions here:

Anyone else have any experience with these hooks ? Any clue as to where I might find some detailed info on them ?

I mean like this information:

What species of fish or fishing situations do they work for and which do they not ? Or, are they recommended for something specific or discouraged in certain situations ?

If they needed to be sharpened, could they be, and how would a person do it ?
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[#505000]I fish for cats exclusively using circle hooks. I like the 4/0 size. I have never tried the smaller sizes on other fish but I find if I buy the quality hooks they are really sharp out of the box.[/#505000]
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I have some 4/0 size hooks, I just haven't used them yet. The 2/0 and 3/0 worked well for hunks'o'carp or sucker meat, but I think I like the sizes 2 and 1 for general cat fishing because of the different baits I tend to use. Besides, I haven't figured out where I can get crawlers big enough that I can hang on a 4/0 and still call it a baited hook. So far this year though, the largest cat I've caught(about 9 lbs.) on a circle hook was on a 2/0 with a whole 5 inch chub.
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Thanks TD,

I knew you'd have the scoop. I am glad you mentioned the thin wire hooks - the thin wire circles are my favorite so far - I can get any kind of bait on them even in the larger hook sizes - I've also never had one straighten out as of yet, which is something I worried about at first. But then again, I think my largest fish(a channel) on a thin wire hook has only been somewhere between 5 and 6 lbs, so I may still get to see one bent out of shape.

BTW - Do you have any favorite manufactures of circle hooks ? I can't remember who made the ones I got - they were the only ones carried by Sportsman's Warehouse when I was there and picked them up. At the time, SW only carried one brand of regular circle hook and one brand(a different one) of thin wire circle hook - and I don't think they are Gamakatsu but they could be Mustads (in any case the thin wire hooks are pretty sharp)... dang-it - I should have kept the packages so I'd know.
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Thanks for the photos TD. They are definately Eagle Claws. I like the looks of those red ones too (hopefully, Cabelas will carry them) - I have had great success with red(bleeding) hooks so far in every application I have used them in - I have also replaced the original trebles on some of my hardbaits with them - I don't know if it is the color or not, but they sure do seem to work well - but then again, Gamakatsu hooks are really sharp and I've had great hook up percentages with them - at least it has seemed so for me.
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