Scup

There have been quite a few concerns and replies to my thread concerning my negative attitude toward Circle/Octopus hooks. This is a very touchy subject when broached by commercial fishermen and with good reason. I have never seen anything negative written about these hooks and without a doubt, it is about time someone will take a stand against them. Should you wonder if I should even care what other fishermen would choose to use for their terminal tackle you would be raising a very good point? Actually, I really do care what others use, since I believe these hooks to be inferior, and that they will reduce the catch taken by recreational anglers, thus leaving more fish out there for me to catch, I am all for them! In fact, I wish everyone would use them since my allowable fish quota will then skyrocket. What scares me about these hooks is, legislature will be passed, and the tools of my trade will be taken away from me. Even more painful would be that I would then have to listen to those that have done this to me exclaimed “your conventional hooks will be replaced with a superior product”. Where do these people come from that have the gall to tell me what is a superior or inferior tool that I use in my trade? Now that I have vented, let’s get down to specifics.

1.Circle hooks were invented by commercial fishermen. Their intended use was to reduce the possibility of fish from throwing a hook on untended long lines or trawls. To this end they have much merit.
2.Circle hooks were not invented to promote survivability of fish released. However, to this end it has been shown, to my satisfaction, that here too they have much merit.
3.There is a move afoot, by manufacturers and so called green-peace types to promote these hooks.
4.Circle hooks will reduce the catch brought to market of commercial fishermen, when compared to conventional hooks with the exception of the use of untended tackle as mentioned above.
5.The death rate of released fish caused by the deep swallowing of conventional fish hooks can be greatly improved if proper fishing and releasing techniques are adopted.

There is really not much to say about the first statement since it is a fact. Not too much to say about the second statement either, since even the commercial sector will agree that it would be extremely difficult for a fish to be deep hooked with a circle hook. The third statement is my opinion and is open to discussion. I have in my hands the 2007 Terminal Tackle catalog. A box of 100, O’Shaughnessy 3407DT size 4/0 sells for $9.05. I do not believe anyone can raise an argument against the virtues of this time tested hook. Same catalog, a box of Circle hooks, 39950BL, size 4/0 sells for $8.95. The problem here is the manufacturer only puts 25 hooks in the box. Am I comparing apples and oranges, probably, since these newer circle hooks come with a special black finish and a chemically sharpened point? This new process must really be expensive to perform since it requires the hook to have almost a four to one markup over a conventional hook. It does not surprise me that hook manufacturers are jumping in on the circle hook bandwagon. As for addressing the remaining part of statement concerning green peace types, I wish to make myself very clear. There are those who feel that mankind should not harm any living thing on this planet. It perfectly understandable to me why this sector of the population would then wish promote circle hooks since it would be in the direction of accomplishing their goals. Not only would more fish live after being released, more fish would live because they would not have been hooked in the first place.

The last two statements will be addressed as one as there quite a bit of overlap here.
When comparing the pros and cons of these hooks it becomes very species and technique driven so we will have to diverge to specifics.

I would like to talk about the king of them all, the striped bass. My credentials are that in fifties I paid for my college education by selling striped bass in a Brooklyn minority neighborhood (please do not report me to the IRS). The quantity of bass that I have caught must have numbered somewhere in the tens of thousands. The commercial techniques used back then were, the bucktail, and chumming with grass shrimp. There were no creel limits back then, and only a minimal 16 inch size limitation. I still find myself wondering if I did not play a major part in the demise of bass fisheries during the eighties. Hopefully, there is no need to discuss the bucktail since I do not believe anyone is promoting a circle jig hook, at least not yet. Chumming with grass shrimp is a technique I had better describe since I never seen anyone use this method since I left Brooklyn. Grass shrimp are about ¼ inch in diameter and about one inch long. Bass so love these morsels, that bass of all sizes have been taken by anglers using them. One would have to reason that if a bass should be deep hooked, then the probability of this happening when a bait of such minute size as a grass shrimp is used must be overwhelming. Considering all of the bass I have taken using grass shrimp, not one bass was ever deep hooked. However, I did not fish for bass with my rod in a holder either! Take a close look at the angler chunking for bass with his fishing rods in their respective holders, and a beer can in his hands. Do not fault the conventional hook for deep hooking a bass when the beer can technique is being used.
Now let me knock those who use eels. There is no question that an eel is probably the most productive live bait for bass barring none. Put an eel in front of a bass and he will take it even if he is not hungry. One would think that a bass so hates an eel that he will eat it just to get rid of it. Watch an angler getting set up for an evening of eel fishing. First he hooks the eel through the head, and then he adds a trailer hook at the eel’s other end. You ask “what’s the trailer hook for”, he replies “just in case there are blues around”. No question that a bass will take an eel whole (they do not have the equipment that a blue has) and there is no question that the blue will do as he pleases including cutting the eel in two. But why invite a bass to be hooked deep with that trailer hook knowing full well the bass is going to swallow the eel whole. Even if the bass should take the eel head first, you would not need that trailer hook.

Now let’s talk about fluke fishing. The commercial weapon of choice here is the bucktail equipped with a fluke belly strip. A well known area commercial fisherman lands consistently approximately 100 pounds of fluke every time he goes out. He even amazes the commercial sector at his productivity. He uses four fishing rods, each equipped with a bucktail/fluke belly strip. Yes, he does use rod holders since he does not have four sets of hands. He basically works his you know what off to make a living by hauling in one fluke after another. What do you think the probability is of a 14 inch fluke deep swallowing a 1.5 ounce bucktail? The 14 inch size limit is set by the DEP and is probably aimed at the draggers, not the so called “pin fisherman”. Since just about everything caught by the draggers is done in, at least this way the smaller fluke will be charged to the dragger’s allowable quota. By upping the size of the bucktail to match the size of the fluke targeted, one can greatly reduce the injuring of fish that must be returned to the sea. Should you feel that you wish to use hook and bait, rather than a jig, and who am I to tell you what to do, then read on?

Three years ago, after reading a magazine article about using circle hooks for fluke, the author had me believing it. However, being a skeptic, I had to try an experiment between conventional and circle fish hooks. A simple contest between these two vastly different fish hooks, I equipped two nearly identical fishing rods with fluke rigs. Each rig contained only a single hook. One rod used a 4/0 Mustard Sproat hook, the other, a Mustard 4/0 circle hook. Each was baited with a large killie and fluke belly strip.
Both fishing rods were placed in holders. My self imposed rules of engagement were that a rod would only be touched after it had hooked up with a fluke unattended. The contest would end after one rod had caught twenty fish. After all, we would not want to short change the experiment by under-sampling. To be quite frank, I had thought the contest would end up being very close; I could not have been further from the mark!

Mr. Sproat won hands down; he brought in the first 20 fish. Three fish were hooked deep. Two of the deep hooked fish were undersized. The leaders was cut close, and both fish were return to the sea, with the sproat hooks still embedded in them. A sproat hook is similar to an O’Shaughnessy hook except that a far thinner gage of wire is used in its manufacture, hence it will erode faster in an ocean environment. Thus two, less than 10 cents each, fish hooks were intentionally lost to give the released fish a fighting chance for survival.
Mr. Circle caught in the same allotted time one undersized fluke. The fluke was not deep hooked and was returned to the sea. There was no loss of Circle hooks.

Let’s now move toward using circle hooks, for blackfish. This is insanity at its worse. The time tested Mustard Virgina Hook has been around for more years than anyone can remember. It has been refined and used by so many for black fishing; it is now often referred to as a blackfish hook. It is an inexpensive hook; size #3 sells for $11.35 per 100. Nothing fancy about this hook, a blued finish (the poorest finish ever given to a hook), it is not forged, does not have a chemically sharpened point, but it is made by using a massive diameter sized wire of Norwegian steel that puts it in a class by itself for strength. A hook is forged by the manufacturer to increase its strength for the given wire size used in its manufacture; not needed here. Who cares about the finish, do you really think you will be coming home from a day of black fishing with the same tackle you started out with? Chemically sharpened point! Just how long do you think a chemically sharpened point is going to stay sharp when you push it through shells, drive the point into algae covered rocks, and snag only heaven knows what. You do need a sharp hook, so you had better learn how to sharpen a hook, checked it several times during the day, and have the on-site tools needed to keep it sharp at all times. I use a #3 hook, a fairly large sized hook, because the minimum legal size of black fish in CT is 14 inches. If I am going to target 14 inch fish and larger, it just does not make sense to use a smaller #5 hook which would be suitable for 12 inch black fish. I would find it very hard to believe that a 12 inch black fish would deep swallow a large #3 hook, unless the beer can technique is being used. Of course, the argument can be put forth, “well what about the big black that breaks your tackle and gets away”. This happens all the time, but so what? If he breaks your tackle, he is off with whatever you have been using anyway. Please be fair to the fish, do not use stainless steel hooks. If your concern is that Mr. Black, now hooked deep because your technique was off somewhat in timing, and the poor fish is now destined to roam the ocean until he makes his final trip to black fish heaven because of your horrible Virginia hook, you do not have clue as to just how tough these fish really are. I have landed dozens of blacks with hooks and leaders still protruding from their mouths including those with deep set hooks in various stages of decomposition. How long does it take for a black fish to recover after being deep hooked? My fishing partner lost a 6 pound black that broke his leader. Ten minutes later, I landed the exact same fish, with the rig previously given to my partner, still hanging out of the tog’s mouth.

A size 3 Virginia hook is a relatively easy hook to place to place a green crab on. I really do not have any idea how one would proceed to place a green crab on a circle hook, let another member handle that one. At best, the green crab is an awkward bait to use. In a current, should it spin, it presents a very unnatural appearance. Let me elaborate some more on this point.

This is another major shortcoming of a circle hook that my fishing buddy, Dennis, pointed out to me. Dennis is a mechanical engineer who was employed by the U. S. Navy for more than 35 years to developed undersea towed bodies. He drives me nuts when we go chunking in that he is constantly messing around with his bait. He trims it this way, then that way, he tests it over the side, he retrieves it back in, trims something else on it, cuts a fork into one end of it, tests it again, and this seems to go on and on. What he is doing is applying his trade. He does not want his bait to spin as that makes a very poor presentation to just about any fish, but especially to bass and blacks will not touch a spinning crab. I really do not fuss much with my bait. Dennis, however, out catches me by at least three to one. Typically I would have landed one bass to every three he brings in. Dennis will not use a circle hook because by its very design it is extremely difficult to bait it up without having the bait spin in a decent current.

To sum things up, I am all for circle hooks. I wish that everyone would use them as the mortality rate of fish would decrease; just do not legislate away my right to use conventional hooks.