new t.u. rig for me this year

[Martian]

 This year, I am going to use floro, and circle hooks. I don't realy think pike are line shy, and may occasionally have a bite off. but my buddie last year, on our last outing, caught 7 pike, 6 were lip hooked. I am more interested in being able to release the under size fish. If you fish with circle hooks, what size do you like best?won't be long now ,I hope, good luck

[Tmuskie]

I'm not a big fan of circle hooks. Wide gap is the way to go. 1/0 to 4/0.

[esox_xtm]

I did the circles and fluoro experiment several years ago. I used 25# fluoro and 1/0 Mustad Demon circles with large shiners. First time out I caught three up to 36", all hooked neatly in the corner of the mouth.

The following week I lost three straight to biteoffs with the same rig. Never even felt the last one.........just cut clean. My fluoro experiment ended right there. I will be revisiting the plastic leader arena this year but my product will be 60#, my consideration for a bare minimum to prevent biteoffs.

As far as the circle thing goes, I've had mixed result with pike. I love 'em for walleyes, bass and most any other fish. My experience has pike hooked in the corner only a little better than half the time. I think the presence of all those teeth somehow keeps that hook from sliding like it should. I don't think they're unreliable, I've just come to believe that to think you can expect classic circle hook ups is maybe not quite right. Better to use larger than you might think................

Just my opinions based on my experiences........... user mileage may vary.

Good luck to you with your experiment. That's half the fun for me!

/m

[fishermantim]

Here's something to consider....

When fishing circle hooks for pike, muskie or pickerel the hook's effectiveness can be directly affected by how the fish takes the bait. Since the don't eat the bait right away, quick sets are not advised (if you haven't had it happen, you haven't fished for these critters). What may happen is that when the fish re-positions the bait in it's mouth in prep for swallowing, the hook point could be facing outward, which means when you set the hook, the hook has to turn around for an efficient hookset.

How many times do you come back with an empty hook?

That's just my take on it.

Anyway, I have been using circle hooks for years now, and every year I have to re-accqaint myself with the method of "letting the fish hook itself".

Enough of this fish talk, I NEED TO FIND SOME ICE!!!

[poorfisherman]

Before using circle hooks I used trebles and before that we used the Norwegian fish killers.  We cannot use live bait so for pike I hang a frozen/thawed smelt horizontal off a quick strike rig.  I would experiment having a tip rigged with trebles and another with circles.

I found that using the circles I didn't get any gut hooks.  Missed fish has gone down a bunch to.  knowing that you need to let the fish take the bait for awhile (without the risk of a gut hook)  has increased hookups a lot.  Now when we see a flag its not a mad sprint over to it.  I take my time let the fish eat and eat and eat.  When I finish my drink and maybe a smoke, slowly pull the line in and let the fish/hook do the work for you.

I like to use a 2/0 hook.

[pokey]

Don't mean to thread jack. But, have you guys that use live bait w/ circles ever try bridle rigging? I use it for cats with great success and the blue water guys use it for large predator fish with great results.

[esox_xtm]

My issue with circles is not so much missing fish, but getting hooked up somewhere inside. Never had any gut hooks, but lots of times that point found it's way in somewhere other than the corner. Again, that doesn't bother me so much but fluoro never proved itself to me as a bite proof leader, bite resistant in tests 50# and above, but even at that still cutable.

I also made a point to use only the "in line" circles as those that were kirbed or offset seemed to be even worse at hooking where they don't belong.

All that and I always do miss the part where you "cross their eyes"...................

Most of my current rigging is uncoated steel with smaller than usual 4x strong treble hooks, either single or quick strike. In any case, if the fish are moving off they get the steel. Very, very few missed and extremely rare deeply hooked.

/m

[Jynx]

in using circle hooks on my ice rigs, I have noticed that if i orient the hook with the hook facing up, and hook the bait so that the point is just out of the skin, but the barb is still in, and let the fish run, a size 0 circle is about the right size.  the weight makes the bait fish struggle to maintain level, and letting the pike make 2 or 3 runs before just gripping the line, and letting the leader slide out between its teeth, till it catches the hook, I can have the predator on the ice, and most of the time the same bait is still good to reuse. 

my other pike rig is rather simple, and most people think I am crazy for even considering using it.  I run a size 14 treble, on 6-8lb mono, and imbed 2 points in the baitfish, with the line coming off the tail. letting the pike run a second time before setting the line, I have a fairly consistent hookup rate, and tend to be either in front of the teeth with the eye, or just inside the corner of the mouth, where the teeth aren't a problem.  out of 2 years of using this rig, every day during hard water, I only had 4 bite-offs, 2 missed sets, and 4 gut hooked fish.   pretty good, in my opinion for light lining with a treble for pike that are 20lb+...

just my $.02.  but I do like running circles for pike, cause the fish can set the hook on itself, and their design makes them really simple to remove.

[Martian]

 here is the plan,  3/0 gamas circles  tied to 20# Seaguar red floro. 30-36 in length.  Also , am making   3/0 gamas crimped on 24 in. of Berkley 20# steel/nylon  coated wire. I will keep a log, to see which works best for me, floro, vs steel. I am also aware of bite-offs being posible if not retied.