What type of Circle hook do you prefer?

[pitch bait]

Well since this year is going to be the year for change. I was wondering what type of circles everyone is going to be using. Me Im in between the Owner and the Eagle Claw. What size does everone use for say a medium bally? I personally like a 6/0. I have very limited experience with this. I have rigged them several ways and have good sucess with all but Im not going to say that I feel 100% yet. I know there are alot of guy that have fished with these extensively and would appreciate the feed back. Mr. Pino I hope to hear from you. Thanks in advance.

[whitey]

I like the 6/0 Owner SSW for White Marlin baits but im not sure what hook im going to use on my Blue Marlin baits yet. We used large Mustads in Costa Rica for the Blue Marlin baits and had a horrable hookup ratio on them.

[Sea Draggin]

I like the 6/0 Owner SSW for White Marlin baits but im not sure what hook im going to use on my Blue Marlin baits yet.

You could use the 6/0 for everything and just let the Blue ones swallow it all the way down until it comes out their other end

I'm going to do a quick edit here, because I don't want to sound negative, but we all know there are going to be more fish hurt with long drop backs, than were ever hurt before.

[pitch bait]

Whitey we used some Eagle Claw 20/0 Circle hooks on our sword fish baits and we has pretty good sucess with hook ups. It is a very beefy hook and has a very wide gap beween hook shank and point. Im going to give this a try on my blue marlin stuff. How Im going to rig them, now that is still a mystery. I have only rigged a couple big baits trolling with circles. I think Im going to be pulling alot more squids.

[freebird2]

Pitch Bait I am with you I am still not 100% convinced on these. As far as Pino it may be a few days before you here from him he is here in Morehead City I just had breakfast with him. He will be tired for a few days I imagine because told me he spent the night with Tamika & Bertha69 last night so he is pretty worn out now>

[Finnseeker]

Well since this year is going to be the year for change. I was wondering what type of circles everyone is going to be using. Me Im in between the Owner and the Eagle Claw. What size does everone use for say a medium bally? I personally like a 6/0. I have very limited experience with this. I have rigged them several ways and have good sucess with all but Im not going to say that I feel 100% yet. I know there are alot of guy that have fished with these extensively and would appreciate the feed back. Mr. Pino I hope to hear from you. Thanks in advance.

Pitch Bait,
Since you did not state the species you targeting I will offer the following advice, the Eagle claw is by far superior hook and use the L2004EL 7/0 or 8/0 for sailfish and stripped marlin. This hook IMO is a thinner wired hook and therefore penetrates the jaw bone easier wherby using the thicker hooks we have found it a lot harder to get a good hookset and the hook up ratio not as good as the thin wire.

The 6/0 in my experience does not seem to set properly for us and has the lowest hookset ratio between the 7/0 and 8/0 hooks.

The other benifits of the thin wired eagle claw hooks are that the barbs disolve out in a day and the hook in 3 days all good for the fish.

For the big blues, IN PV, Cabo and especially Brazil we using the 24/0 Super Charlie Brown Circle hooks which are hand made forged shanks and the widest gap out of all the hooks on the market I have see. Contact Howard at quick rig www.quickrig.com and you will see his hooks.

I will be using these in Brazil shortly but can tell you that out of all the circle hooks out there this is the biggest with the biggest gap on the market and exactly what we have been looking for in Brazil for the big 1000 lb marlin.

Good luck and congrats for trying and using circles, you will enjoy much more and the fish fight better and harder as they are not gut hooked or injured.
We successfully used these 24/0 on the big blues and blacks filming and releasing in PV in September this year.

[rarhomes]

For sails - 7/0 to 8/0 Owners depending on bait size.

Capt. Rick

[pitch bait]

Thanks for the replies.

Finnseeker,
Are bridling you mackerals with that hook? Have you rigged any horse ballyhoo with the circle, and if so what method.

Im pretty good at making thigs swim. I have rigged ballys with the circle and the floss rig, the monel loop rig, the swivel rig, wired down the the bill for the "skipper". Have you seen that any such rig has out fished any other. Im not trying to be a pain in the butt and sorry if I am. Im just trying to eliminate a bunch of trial and erorr.

Thanks in advance.

[Deep C]

I'm the last guy that should chime in here but I have been using circles all season... I figured I'd share what little I have observed and hope to learn a lot from this thread. I settled for live bait on the 39951BLN Mustad6/0. Thanks to help from fellow board members I was able to dial in its use properly after some early boo boos. Simple as snelling versus uni knot.
I settled on that hook as its a bitchy sharp light wire ideal for sails here. I moved up to the 7/0 for trolling as the rig I have settled on using for that needs a slightly longer shank. This size has worked very well for dink to medium. When I tried larger hoos I needed to go longer yet on the shank. I tried the 8/0 but its really didn't get it.
I tried the Owner SSW inline and the added length of this shank along with being a straighter shank filled the need nicely. Not quite as bitchy sharp but plenty sharp enough. It also has heavier wire that I will feel ok about using on 40lb and tld 25 class tackle. Possibly even more.
Moving to macks... I had experimented in the past and am still doing so with Eagle Claw's L2045r in an 18/0. Experimenting both out front bridal and sewed to the top of the head. I think the sewn one possibly with some lead is where I may land with it.
As for combos I have not as of yet found a way to rig or a hook to work in them but I havn't given up. Maybe somebody could shed some light there. Thank you.

[Finnseeker]

Thanks for the replies.

Finnseeker,
Are bridling you mackerals with that hook? Have you rigged any horse ballyhoo with the circle, and if so what method.

Im pretty good at making thigs swim. I have rigged ballys with the circle and the floss rig, the monel loop rig, the swivel rig, wired down the the bill for the "skipper". Have you seen that any such rig has out fished any other. Im not trying to be a pain in the butt and sorry if I am. Im just trying to eliminate a bunch of trial and erorr.

Thanks in advance.

Pitch Bait,

Im bridling my live macs and using a gromet to keep the hook straight and up above on the head. Im snelling all my hooks. Lately we have been using the quick rig system I tried last month for the first time and was impressed http://www.quickrig.com/Images/baitclip.wmv

Big hoos im also bridling with a sinker between the gills and popping the eyes out rigging the circle hook firmly on top of the head with wire, here is another method from Wahoonbox http://wahoonbox.com/videos/circle.wmv

Again im matching the hatch, not sure your target species or size and will switch from Cabalito's to Macs to Ballyhoo all rigged bridle method has been the most successful for us on circles.