Maiden Halibut trip, Victoria area late May…

[Kinetic]

Following the line of thought: why circle hooks? Those work fine for commercial long lining, but why for sport fishing when you're watching the gear anyway?

I switched to J hooks roughly 4 years ago and would never go back to circle hooks. I find much better hook-up ratio with J hooks, but I also enjoy watching the rods like a hawk.

 

[bryce]

Following the line of thought: why circle hooks? Those work fine for commercial long lining, but why for sport fishing when you're watching the gear anyway?

Pros
Easy to release big one
landing ratio way higher once hooked
Don’t hook a lot of the **** fish
Don’t need tandems and have hooks flying around once fish in boat
Way less harm to bigger fish that can’t be unhooked (don’t have hooks in there guts or gills)
Have time at side of boat to look,measure, take pictures
Barely have to keep line tight most the time if you have new people on board

Cons
Don’t catch the bait stealing **** fish
Miss the odd light bite (which would probably shake off anyways)

 

[Fisher_dude]

I fish circle hooks with heads and j/trebles with belly’s and herring usually. All depends on what the dogs are doin.

 

[Captain PartyMarty]

Drifting for Hali is super effective if the population is high. I have caught plenty of hali while drifting in WH. I have recently been doing more Anchor fishing as I find that more relaxing. I also switched from J to circle hooks two years ago, hook-up ration much higher with the circle hook. and once there on you never loose it.

 

[Hot-Streak]

I go back and forth. Last few hali we have got on J hooks but I like the ease of circle hooks if i'm solo or with someone new as I they seem to hook themselves and I don't have to watch the rod all the time.