Fishing On Sunday

[Guest fish finger]

Went out for a few hours yesterday with my dad and brother armed with spinning rods, ragworm and squid in search of some bream. Left xchurch at around 2pm and headed for the patches.

 

Stopped at x-ray for some mackies. There were millions there, you couldn't get your feathers down more than about 15ft without catching strings of them. Some good sized ones were good fun on the spinning rods and 1oz of lead.

 

We arived at the outer patch and chose a relatively shallow spot in 25ft of water. We found out it was very rocky and we lost 6 leads in the first half an hour. We were being plaqued by pouting and small wrasse so we moved after an hour to another spot on the edge of the patch in 40ft of water.

 

We had about 15 bream and I now think I have worked out how to hook them! I tried using some size 4 circles and caught a bream on them but I wasn't sure what the best way to hook the bait with them was, so I used size 4 mustad aberdeens. Also had more wrasse and a doggy.

 

All in all an enjoyable day!

[Newboy]

When you use circle, you shouldn't/doesn't need to strike, the fish is more often than not hook thenselves. With normal hooks you simply lift into the fish as bream like to mouth their food before swallowing.

[Speciman]

Have never used them myself although have heard they are good for bass in the surf.

 

Which types of bait are more suited to circle hook use? Are there times when the baits must be cut/prepared differently compared to long shank hooks?

[duncan]

very different baiting for the two types of hook. Consider a compass with the bottom of a hook bend at 180 degrees and the hook point at 270

 

generally the J hook requires you to leave the hook point, barb and about 90 degrees from 270 - 180 clear of the bait

 

generally a circle requires the whole of the gap from 270 round to the shank to be completely clear. It folllows that you basically hang your bait from the bend of a circle, hooking it near the edge. Good baits for this are cuttle strips, mackerel strips and, to a lesser degree, squid strips - all because they are tough and the fish will take them into their mouth before pulling them off the hook. Also excellent is a mackerel tail section, tail removed and hooked through the stump - really tough and great hooking potential. Can also hook frozen sandeels this way. Whole Calamari squid hooked through the top of the mantle hang well, especially in a current, but can be pulled of the hook quite easily.

[Speciman]

Thanks Duncan that helps a lot, I'll give em a go.

 

Are circle hooks more suited when fishing for one type of fish than another?

[duncan]

yep - large mouths and a tendency to suck in a whole bait rather than nibble and chew!

 

Don't forget that the circles were designed origionally for self hooking on longlines and have been adopted heavily by anglers fishing catch and release because if you do hook up it will be in the jaw somewhere rather than the gut.