pike/circle hooks

[Dave Bourne]

Have any of you pikers got any ideas about rigging deadbaits on a single circle hook,mostly 6" roach or smallish mackerel.

We will be fishing small lochs so casting distance will be 50-60 yards .

[jeff smith]

Have any of you pikers got any ideas about rigging deadbaits on a single circle hook,mostly 6" roach or smallish mackerel.

We will be fishing small lochs so casting distance will be 50-60 yards .

 

Dave,

Check out http://www.mikeladle.com/catch/index.html and look for the various items on pike and circles.I used them myself for the first time this week,size 4/0 circles, and was quite impressed.I caught a couple of fish up to about 7lb on livebaits of about 6-7 inches and they were neatly hooked in the scissors.The baits were attached through the upper lip,but Mike Ladle ,who I was fishing with,succeeded in catching(also neatly hooked) on a large 8inch deadbait ,wobbled,with the circle hook placed in the snout through both lips.

I think that this would be the best way to hook your dead baits.

I did experiment yesterday with wobbling circle hooked sprats on the River Arun(anyone else piking on this river?) no takes,but the soft sprats stayed on the hook better,snagged less,and lasted longer than if i'd been using a standard treble rig.

I reckon 50-60 yd casts with the roach and mackerel would be attainable.

[benhben]

If there is just a smallish circle hook, (Or any single hook for that matter) hooked in the mouth, wont most pike end up taking the back half of the bait without actually getting hooked?

[Peter Waller]

A quick search on AN should find several previous discussions / threads on this subject.

[Dick Dastardly]

Been discussed a lot as Peter says.Im still not that sure about circles for pike.Or more acurately not convinced if they are needed/an improvement or not.One thing for sure though and that is deep hooking is very rare but then hooking aint so good full stop!

 

At the end of this season (end of March for me) I think that I will finally be able to comit myself to putting my experiences and hopefully veiws about them down in writing.This is after some three seasons of trying them.

[Newt]

I'll be looking forward to that Budgie.

 

I can safely say they are the best hooks, bar none, for our catfish, and are great for reducing the amount of deep hooking bluegills.

 

They are not so great for the sucker mouth species - the design needs a hard lip to perform well.

 

Beyond that, since I mostly fish with lures when not catfishing or carping, really don't have as good a feel for how they perform as I'd like to and will be very interested in your results.

[Dave Bourne]

Thanks for the replies , however some of you seem to have missed the question.I'm happy with circle hooks what I'm trying to work out is the best way to rig them to be able to cast them a fair distance I like Mike Ladles way which I think is ok but he is fishing rivers with no need to cast any distance and he is wobbling the bait therefore the fish is taking a moving dead bait on the other hand i will be fishing a static bait.

I have been thinking along the lines of a hair rig to leave the hook well clear of the bait but I'm not sure how are you rigging your baits budgie.

Perhaps the answer might be to use 2 single hooks I'm not sure, any ideas.

[jeff smith]

Check this out.Mick Brown has some thoughts on using circles for static deads.

http://www.mikeladle.com/tackle/tackle158.html

 

Jeff

[noodle996]

Thanks for the replies , however some of you seem to have missed the question.I'm happy with circle hooks what I'm trying to work out is the best way to rig them to be able to cast them a fair distance I like Mike Ladles way which I think is ok but he is fishing rivers with no need to cast any distance and he is wobbling the bait therefore the fish is taking a moving dead bait on the other hand i will be fishing a static bait.

I have been thinking along the lines of a hair rig to leave the hook well clear of the bait but I'm not sure how are you rigging your baits budgie.

Perhaps the answer might be to use 2 single hooks I'm not sure, any ideas.

 

 

If your intent on using the circle hooks with a hair dont leave the hook clear, hook it into the bait at some point otherwise there is risk of the hook hooking outside the mouth (learned this with experience) and personally Im a fan of singles but circle hooks dont do it for me with pike far to many dropped takes

and in less experienced hands thats bad news a decent ( proper ) single gives you the oppertunity to set the hook very early

circle hooks are for me best left to sea fishing and cats (catfish that is)

[Dick Dastardly]

I have been thinking along the lines of a hair rig to leave the hook well clear of the bait but I'm not sure how are you rigging your baits budgie.

Perhaps the answer might be to use 2 single hooks I'm not sure, any ideas.

 

 

I dont see the point of using two singles as you are just defeating the origonal reason for not using trebles! ie reducing the number of hooks.

 

No point at all (IMHO) in using two circles as once one had "tripped" and penetrated the other couldnt.

 

I just use a large circle and hook the bait in one eyesocket and out of the other for wobbling.For suspended baits I simply hook them in the back just in front of the dorsal.Deads on the bottom I just nick them in the end of the tail.

 

Hair rigging for preds has always been a bit dodgy for me as you do get more outside of mouth hook ups and obviously if hair rigged through the tail have to wait longer to strike.Only time Ive ever hair rigged regular for preds was with eel section for cats and also (for cats again) When Ive needed to use large hooks with small live baits baits.The hair being a loop tied on to the bend of a single and put through the wrist of a live baits tail.Tried the loop method and using an over size "boillie stop".Only advantage is that you arnt having to penetrate the bait with such a large hook and thus it stays alive longer.

 

Despite seriously not liking large singles due the the problems of deep penetration Im quite happy using the largest of circles as they dont suffer from the same problem to the same extent.But as said Im still not convinced they work for pike any better than trebles.