found a circle

[fishocean]

My issue started flounder fishing. I tied my own hooks and would use Stainless hooks . I would get my butt busted that if I lost a fish to broken leader the fish would suffer. I used stainless hooks because of the way they held the sharpness. I could put them away every week and not get dull from rust. My biggest thing is all the flounder I have caught ,not 1 has had a hook in its jaw except mine. Again this is just my experience.when I started offshore fishing I shyed away from stainless hooks because we did not want to harm fish. I realize stainless hooks are much more expensive but I believe they improve hookups (LASER SHARP!). I also believe if we break a fish off he will loose it naturally. Just my experience! I have never caught afish offshore with a hook in its jaw either. I would like to know if any body else has experiece with this???

[Deep C]

In a typical year down here in the thick of season I will catch about 3 sails in a typical year with leader hanging from it all with J hooks in various stages of dis repair. To date I havn't caught one with a circle in it... Since about half the sails down here are caught on circle and they're almost all releases with the hook still in, it gets me thinking hard about why I don't see em with circles when the circle is harder to dislodge... I can only conclude that although initial damage from the circle may be less, the long term may be killing them.

I have caught a number of sharks with circles in them. Some nasty festering wounds on some while others not so bad. For that matter I have seen a number with wire leader comming out from deep down and would have to assume J hook in the gut but the fish doing just fine too.

I have heard a few tuna recaptures with circles in them. Bad in the case of seined ones as I mentioned before...Not so bad on individual chunked fish. Circle reports on recaptured billfish are indeed rare here and from what I hear elsewhere too.
It will be interesting to see what tag data from cicle caught fish suggests over time...