How is everybody rigging there Hammered Diamond jigs

[IN$UFI$HENT FUND$]

Circles or J-Hooks?

[swell rider]

I only fish J Hooks, I just don't think the circle hook concept the design of the hook and the way it's intended to be used works well with jigs so the success rate in my opition is not as good..Just my opinion..Ken

[mythosbeer]

I concur!

[SeaBiscuit]

J hooks or trebles on swivel. Never tried circles.
Biscuit

[Caveman Sportfishing]

Love the Hammered diamond jigs with all mustad sea demon 14/0 circle hooks. All my jigs have them and we used many like this for those nice fat 80-100 lb Yellowfin in 2007 when there was actually a night canyon bite on jigs. What I like best about them is they do not hook bluefin in the gill plates which makes releasing bleeding tuna a real sad thing and we never had this problem with circles and I do not ever use double hook rigs at all when we Bluefin Tuna fish. I know this is not the proper way to fish tuna jigs but it works for us and with the truly world class summer BFT fishing up our way it is more about catch and release these days and I have found the circles work great for that. Of course not every trip is going to be awesome but on the good days we can end up releasing 15 or so 100 plus lb bluefin in just a few hours so I love the circle hooks for this. Also never had a circle pull out from a tuna yet but have had J hooks pull out both in the in the deep canyons and inshore for BFT. We think catch and release on the BFT so I will continue to use circles on our Hammered Diamond Jigs until we find a better way to rig them.

[swell rider]

John,

Understanding how a circle hook works is the hardest thing to get people to understand. I can say that I've handled more circle hooks than most guys will ever in a lifetime as a commercial Longliner up in Alaska fishing Halibut and yes the way the hook is designed to be used is the same as in Rec fishing.. I believe that with fishing tuna the bite is so quick that the reaction to try and set the hook is removed..With other forms of fishing and Jigging with circle hooks almost everytime you try and set the hook the hook pulls straight out, the hook is designed to set in the coner of the mouth when the fish turns to swim away...The hook sets itself. There are diffrent styles of circle hooks but the two that are most commonly seen are offset and inline circle hooks the offset foul hooking more fish because of the desgn of the hook..I know this for a fact because I have more than 1 scar on my hands and arm from being snagged by offset circle hooks..LOL ..Ken

[Bert Rodgers]

Do you rig the circles assist style or on the back end?

Bert

[Bert Rodgers]

Poveramo recently wrote an article about using circles on jigs for snapper and grouper claiming a higher hook up ratio. I'm not sure how much is hype and how much is real.

Bert

[gman]

I cant see how it would really work better than a J Hook and I have used circles for years. Jigging goes against every premise of circle hook use.

Circles are best used when the fish can swallow and run the other way while NOT setting the hook which goes against jerk/crank style as you are in continuous hook-setting motion the whole time. In addition there is no drop back like with circles as your assist hook and cord is only 6" max

You may hook some fish but I dont think it would work better than J hooks IMHO but Im willing to try.

Almost 99% of my fish are hooked in the same spot, corner of mouth with a huge single J hook ... although I did hook an amberjack exactly in the ass this week LOL

[swell rider]

Circle hooks are a great tool in helping in the release of fish as most everyone knows. Gut hooks are avoided for the most part which is great in releasing fish and when fished right a solid hook set in the corner of the mouth is almost inevitable. I spoke with George at one of his seminars and he is very knoledgable but Florida is a very consivation minded state so circle hooks are right up there ally. But like I said if fished right there great if not it's a swing and a miss..