You might be saying to yourself what in the world is a circle hook. In fact, circle hooks have been around for hundreds of years, and hooks used by the Hawaiian people more than 1,000 years ago look much like our modern day circle hook.

Circle hooks have been used in saltwater fishing circles for a good number of years but have only recently arrived on the freshwater fishing scene. Most freshwater applications use the circle hook when pursuing gamefish like catfish or other freshwater gamefish where live bait or cut bait is used. They have also been used for several years by anglers who fish for trophy largemouth bass where anglers use live trout or shad.  

The advantage in using the circle hook is that the gamefish will hook itself, and normally that hook set occurs in the jaw or edge of the mouth. The reason for that type of hookset is the design of the circle hook. The hook point curls back toward the bend of the hook making what appears to be a near complete circle.

One of the primary advantages of the circle hook is that less damage is done to the gamefish. Most circle hooks penetrate the jaw or lips of the fish and infrequently are the fish hooked in the throat. The design of the hooks allows a fish to swallow the bait into the throat but when the fish moves away with the bait the bait and hook slides out of the throat and due to the design of the circle hook, it rotates and the fish is hooked in the jaw or lip.

This allows the fish to be released unharmed if that is the angler’s desire. Few fish that are hooked in the throat survive even if the angler cuts the line and allows the hook to stay in place. Anglers assume that the hook will work itself out of the fish but most fish die when hooked in the throat. Any attempt by the angler to remove a hook that has penetrated the throat of the fish will almost assuredly result in death to the fish.

The ability to release fish that I have caught unharmed is what led me to research and begin using circle hooks. I began using circle hooks while catfishing and was amazed at how even with a baited but unattended rod and reel, the fish would hook itself, and almost 100 percent of the time, it was in the jaw or lip.

Earlier this spring during a visit by one of my grandchildren, we caught close to twenty catfish up to 12 pounds over two days and almost 100 percent of the catfish hooked themselves and were jaw or lip hooked. The one exception was a catfish that I estimated to be around 20 pounds that took a small live bream.

I fought that big catfish all the way to my dock from open water and about the time the catfish was in position to net it; I saw the bream head and hook come straight out of the catfish’s throat. The catfish had swum directly to the dock and there was never any sideways movement with the bait, which kept the hook from penetratiing the catfish’s jaw or lip.

Normally the gamefish will swallow the bait and begin to swim away and with tension from the rod and reel the bait will pull out of the throat and the hook will penetrate the jaw or lip. One thing that anglers have to learn with the circle hook is that you do not need to set the hook.

The gamefish will do the hook setting for you. If you forget and tug on the line when a strike occurs, you will in many cases pull the baited hook out of the fish’s throat resulting in no hook up. When a strike occurs while using cut bait or live bait, just simply begin reeling because the fish has already hooked itself.

Is there applications for the circle hook when fishing for largemouth bass? Yes and anglers are finding new uses for the circle hook for freshwater applications everyday. Hook manufactures are now developing smaller circle hooks for many freshwater uses. Initially, most circle hooks were extremely large and heavy since they were used primarily for large saltwater and freshwater gamefish using live bait or cut bait.

In the interest of conservation and because of the ability to safely release gamefish when using the circle hook, developers are creating light wire circle hooks for many applications used by freshwater anglers when using soft plastics. Prior to their development largemouth bass anglers using soft plastics primarily used what are referred to as “J” hooks due to their shape.

Next week we will look at freshwater applications where circle hooks are used with soft plastics to catch largemouth bass. We will also identify specific manufacturer’s hooks that can be used for those various applications.

See you next week.