Circle Hooks

[Renrag39]

Got out again yesterday evening for 2hrs. Decided against using lobs and used my cheesepaste. Made a retaining cage (its very soft and the water isn't cool enough to harden it yet) from a cut down pen spring just slipped over the #6 hook.

1st chuck, a lovely lil Jack of about 2lb, perfectly hooked in the scissors. Doddle to unhook (crushed barb). Was going to set up my feeder rod too but never got round to it. The fish really responded well to the paste and definitely sorted out the bigger fish. Caught 8 good 2-3lb skimmers (just starting to colour up), 2 Roach to about 1lb and a fantastic Rudd about 1.5lb. All on a running paternoster. Every fish hooked in the gob and caught on a lump of paste the size of the end of my thumb. No reduction in bite/fish ratio (considering they are cyps). Just ignored the tiny taps and waited for the tip to wrap round. Also tried touch legering and I could feel the tiddlers pecking away at it then it would stop for maybe 5 seconds, followed by a proper take. Seemed like the bigger fish were pushing the small ones away, giving it the eye and then 'nom' I'm in. A real confidence booster.

Will still use J's for general feeder and floating but will definitely continue to use circles when I'm targeting larger fish.

 

Renrag

[Dick Dastardly]

Interesting Mark says not to use them for Bream.I remember Peter Waller (where is he these days?) was using them for bream ok.

[Renrag39]

Admittedly, you really do have to alter your technique to get the hook out but as my barbs are crushed, its just a matter of 5 seconds thinking time and then rotating the hook out.

With regards to how the bite/fish ratio I think that, in the smaller sizes especially (using a #6 atm), even a breams lips are tough enough to cause the hook to take a hold and rotate into it. I still have my reservations concerning the even smaller sizes and will experiment with the #12's I got, using bait on the hook, as well as hair-rigged.

My theory is that for the circles to be effective on a 'soft' mouthed fish, the gap between point and shank has to be of equal or larger thickness than that of the fishes lips to work to its potential. So this makes hook choice a more precise science. What I want to discover is whether or not this will adversely affect bite/fish ratio. To test this I propose to swap over completely to #12 circles for a few sessions and see if this pans out.

I can't really be too scientific with the bite/fish ratio but I know what 'feels' about right.

 

Renrag