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| Hello All, After completing four seasons now using Circle hooks for Muskie, I've completed a article covering the "Do's and Don'ts while fishing these types of hooks. The article will run in Jan issue of the Outdoor Notebook in the Chicago-land area and then again in the March or April issue of Waters and Wood's magazine here in Wi, I noticed some questions and debates on this subject this past season and I hope some will find it informative and useful[;)] | |
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| That`s great Chuck,I have tried them this season,but never had one hit,only the Quick-Strike!Will be waiting patiently for your article.Thanx for the Christmas note and hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Jeff | |
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| Hey Chuck, have you tried them in the Spring with smaller suckers or chubs? I was thinking about trying them in the Spring around here, maybe suspending a small sucker or chub under a float ten or fifteen feet behind the boat. Considering that the size of the bait is smaller, I would think a musky or pike would down one pretty quickly. What do ya think there oh Musky Guru?[:p] | |
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| Hey Matt, you can use circles earlier in the season and they will work fine, but I would more than likly just use a quick-strike rig unless I was fishing real clear water then I'd probably go with the circle hook. Make sure you grab the Jan. issue of Outdoor-Notebook or the March issue of Waters and Wood's and read my article to help you determine the different ways to rig through out the season if you decide to use the circle hook rig. Take care. | |
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| Chuck, great article! What exactly is the function of the splitring? How does it help hooking percentage? Crimping a heavy duty mcmahon swivel on the end and then adding a splitring and circle would enable the hook to have a free range of motion, and you wouldn't have to worry with gluing or welding of the split ring. Do you think that would help hooking percentage? Have you tried it? Is full mobilty of the hook important at the end of the leader? Just an idea for possibly fine tuning the circle rig. | |
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| Chuck, I have used the circle hooks some this fall. no grabs yet but I was thinking of using them when the water is warmer too to keep the suckers alive. I lose them fast with quick strikes. What are your thoughts on that and what hooks do you use? I have eagle claw 8/0 and 10/0. Thanks for any info.[:)] | |
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| Hey Matt, to answer your question, yes I did try something very simular to what you suggested and what I found was after the muskie picked up the sucker I was getting a few more drops with all that hardware and it also seemed to pick up more weeds with the snap and split-ring. I'm of the mind set that the less hardware the more action, and using the JB-weld epoxy works great to seal the split-ring. Full range of motion so the hook can turn easier to catch the corner of the mouth is the whole purpose of the split ring, it increased my hook-ups by 12%. I'm glad to enjoyed the article.
Todd, to answer your question, YES, I do think that the use of a circle will help keep your sucker alive longer. Another tip would be to keep your suckers in the same water temp as the bait shop holding tanks, unless your fishing in the fall when the lake water is close to the same temp as the bait shops, in other words don't have your live well or bait well full of warm lake water when you put your bait in. Then once you get to the lake slowly pump a SMALL amounts of lake water in your well a little at a time, the warmer the lake water the slower and smaller amounts should be pumped. What your trying to do is SLOWLY bring up the temp in your well so as not to cause stress or shock to the bait. As far as the hooks that I prefer, I use Mustad Demon Circle hooks, I like them because there NOT off-set, on the size, it depends on the size of the sucker, usally a 11/0 and a 14/0 fits most of my needs but be-aware, a 11/0 from one company might be totally different in size and shape than a 11/0 from some other company. If you haven't already, try and get a copy of my article, if I do say so myself, it's a very instuctional read, take care and I hope this helps. | |
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An Article on Using Circle Hooks For Muskies