Circle hook jig

[Barefootin]

I would like to get some feedback on adapting my squid head jigs to circle hooks to make them legal for adding bait. As far as I can tell there is no such thing as a circle jig hook for use in large lures. I can either modify a large shank circle for use in the mold:
http://www.mustad.no:80/catalog/emea...ct.php?id=1920
or add the hook rig to a mojo style head which is where I am leaning now.
This photoshopped picture is in essence what I want:

Hopefully some of you guys who have experience with rigging circles could offer your suggestions.
Thanks,

[Captain Michael Buffington]

but I suspect you are going to have some major issues getting that circle attatched to the jig to perform. Thats not how they work imo. You might think about having the hooks seperate from the head. Good luck

Mike

[Barefootin]

Thanks,
That is where I am leaning; the mojo head just has a ring at the base of the collar to attach the rig. I would like some suggestions on that rigging; will probably use 90# Surstrand to rig but open to suggestions.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Thanks,
That is where I am leaning; the mojo head just has a ring at the base of the collar to attach the rig. I would like some suggestions on that rigging; will probably use 90# Surstrand to rig but open to suggestions.

I would go with a snell. I've never used them in tandem but it should work. This is 250 mono but the multistrand snells nice.

Mike

[canyongear]

Barefootin,

Why not just make head with a stainless/duratin eye in the butt of the head (molded in), then use a stainless split ring for the first hook. The second hook could be crimped to the (molded in the head) eye with either mono or cable..then either snelled with mono or crimped to the second hook.

Eliminates the hook fixed in the head and a second eye for the cable..

Then you have 2 free swinging hooks..able to perform their duties as circles

.02cents..for what its' worth..

[Barefootin]

I like the split ring; may need to use two or build the mold to run the pin horizontal instead of verticle to get the hook point up instead of to either side.

[canyongear]

There ya go..

[WAHOONBOX]

VERY INTERESTING TRIAL AND ERROR YOU GOT GOING ON HERE....VERY COOL! I LIKE THE FACT THAT MICHAEL & 'GEAR ARE SHARING THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 'BOX HERE! THAT IS HOW AND WHY THIS FORUM WAS ESTABLSIHED IN THE FIRST PLACE!


PLEASE CONTINUE....GOOD LUCK BAREFOOTIN...KEEP US INFORMED....THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THE WORLD WILL LEARN....I LOVE IT!

[Captain Michael Buffington]

that looks like it will kill something

Mike

[Captain Fred Archer]

BF'n,

Nice, "squidly looking" jigs you have there...I like them.

As you might know, I have been fishing, not experimenting with (that was over long ago), circle hooks in lures for almost two decades now. I have probably made more mistakes than anyone ever will when it comes to that subject. And they were corrected long ago. Hopefully I can help a little with what you are trying to do.

First and foremost, I never had much success with double circle hook rigs in lures. As Michael noted, you want to allow the C-hook the freedom to move around and "do its thing". If you do, it will, but two of them work against one another and it seems to be one of those "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" things, if you know what I mean. If it were me rigging them, I would definitely go with a single C-hook.

Continuing with "the swing is the thing", it looks to me like you have the perfect setup for that with the loop at the back of the the jig head, where the jig hook would normally go. It would take a bit of experimenting, but it seems to me that you could rig the circle much as you have now, on the long leader, and you'd have one circle hooking machine on your hands. Experimentation would be more on the side of finding out if the freely swinging hook created skirt-tangling issues and if so, eliminating them. There are several ways to do that.

The other issue could be hook placement. Gamefish strike real squid right on the noggin, not the feet. The latter doesn't kill the squid, it just gives them a proverbial "hot foot". Of course, that might cause more skirt-tangling issues, but then again, it might not. Opinions are fine when it comes to that sort of thing, but experimenting is the key to finding out the facts.

The further fact is that we are working on something quite similar for employing circle hooks in jigs for halibut, fluke, stripers and other fish that like jigs. Our head shape is vastly different than yours and these jigs are for fishing on or near bottom, not offshore trolling, but all in all, we are pretty much shooting for the same thing.

If you'd like, I will be glad to share what we learn as we progress with this project, which is on a back burner right now because we have had a lot of other fish to fry lately. This would have to be handled via emails...we have a few leeches who try to live off of our innovations and I am not willing to help them in any way. Sorry, but those are the facts. Once we have completed our work and have debuted our products we will share with all.

Circle hooks not only work great, I for one am convinced that you land more fish with them than J's. They are a key factor in releasing healthy fish and that is extremely important in most of today's fisheries, especially ones with smaller limits and a lot of shorts that we all want to have go back to grow, not to die.

Good luck with your project and kudos for the circle hook thing.

The picts are of how we scorpion rig a C-hook to keep it close to the head (the rig locks into the head, then pulls out when you are hooked up), a CaboTiger with a scorpy C-hook chasing a bar of little teasers, and a tail gunner C-hook on a shark pitch bait/troll lure with a giant squid teaser. All can be found in the books, along with rigging instructions.

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com