Circle or J hooks for Lings?

[Rain City]

I normally use those pre-rigged steel leaders with 9-O or 10-O hooks and for the most part they are J hooks. I'm tying up a bunch of leaders with 80lb mono and bought 9-O Circle hooks but am now questioning my decision. Thoughts?

 

[Waterwolf2230]

For a circle hook to work as designed the fish has to ingest the hook and turn away. Then as tension gets applied it slides towards the opening in its mouth and catches on the corner. It's a different way of fishing where you need a few seconds of patience when the fish bites which is hard to do when you see the rod bend. If you don't do it that way the hookup % goes way down. It's the safest way to catch and release fish though. Almost always in the corner of the mouth.

Here is a good video that explains it well...

Hope that helps,

Curtis

 

[ericl]

The above is PERFECT

 

[Dogbreath]

Circle Hooks = Bee Ess.