Circle Hook Flies

[RoyalWulff 0]

This is a thread for everyone to post pictures and patterns of their flies that use circle hooks.

 

Come on guys and girls lets see your creative juices flow. I know circle hooks are more fish friendly, yet I dont know how to properly use them for certain flies.

 

Royalwulff

[JSzymczyk 0]

I'll be the pessimist... what's the point? "Fish Friendly" circle hooks? Not a chance unless you can get them in various shank lengths and wire guages. Even then, there is not enough data to show they would be any more "friendly" to fish than a debarbed regular hook.

 

I suppose if someone feels the need to be all huggy-kissy with the fish, one could snip their fly hooks off at the bend and count each strike (or rise, or hit, or whatever you call it) as a success.

 

I'll be keeping to non-circle hooks for my flies.

[Fly_guy_stu 0]

JSzymczyk - I can't say that i care for your attitude really, it's a personal preference so I don't see the point in your post. Just because you don't get much variation - if any - when it come to shank length, gape etc doesn't mean you can't use them when a short shank is called for. I'm by no means a "fish hugger" but if it gives them a better chance of survival, thats just a bonus, i personaly like the challange of a new way of setting the hook as appose to "striking them". The ratio of normal hooks to circles in my box is about 10 : 1

 

RoyalWulff - I just bought a pack and I've tied various nymphs on them suck as Daiwl Bach's and they're a great shape for buzzers, haven't had much time to get experimental with them yet but it won't take long till I do, I'll post some pics later on tonight probably.

[Sean Juan 0]

They are also more effective - especially for big fish - when you know what you are doing.

 

I'll post a few pictures later.

[JSzymczyk 0]

I don't ever catch any big fish in fact just the other day I got repeatedly laughed at by my son because I caught perhaps the smallest fish possible to catch (a few bluegills perhaps one-and-a-half inches long...) while he caught some nicer ones...

 

I'm just playing devil's advocate, stirring the pot. I just don't see much applicability with flies on circle hooks- (then too I don't see the point in half the stuff I see around me :dunno: ) I'm just not good enough I guess, to be that selective in the fly fishing I do. I know that very very VERY few fish I've caught over the years with flies could have been damaged less with any type of hook other than a "standard" J-style hook, debarbed.

 

from what I've learned, the "point" (ha ha) of circle hooks is to prevent the hook from engaging until the corner of the jaw enters the gape of the hook- good for bait, :dunno: for flies. very often a fish isn't going to hang on to a fly long enough, or let it slide around in it's mouth long enough for that to happen.

 

 

check this, taken from the following article:

http://www.in-fisherman.com/magazine/artic...oks/index1.html

Hot Topics: Cooke and Suski report that flies tied on circle hooks are a hot item, due perhaps to the conservation bent of many fly fishers. Preliminary results suggest, however, that circle hooks were not as effective at landing trout and bluegill as J-hooks, and removal time was greater. Bleeding and tissue damage were similar between hook types.

 

that's a pretty good article, discussing pros and cons without an apparent bias.

 

I think I'll look at buying some for catfishing, my son hasn't quite got the hang of setting the hook yet.

 

[Sean Juan 0]

The conservation benefits of a circle hook primarily apply to baitfishermen, since it is exceedingly rare for a fish to actually swallow (to its stomach) a fly. I use them because they are effective. They aren't new by the way, I was baiting herring onto long lines with circle hooks 25 years ago, and even then they were used to tie flies.

 

Circle hook flies offer two benefits. The first is that you do not truly need to set the hook if you are fishing a situation where the fish will take and turn with the fly. Best example an area with a very heavy current. The fish will dart from cover, take the fly, and then head back. All that is required to hook that fish is line tension. This is very useful when fishing sinking lines, and for topwater fishing. Most of my top water flies are tube flies with a circle hook at the rear. A bass takes the fly off the surface and then has to turn (doesn't have to been a full turn.)

 

The second is due to their short shank, a big fish has less leverage in a fight. So where a bass bugg tied on a typical long shanked bass bugg hook can bend or pop loose - the vast majority of the fish hooked on circle hooks will be landed.

 

The article didn't impress me - but then again most things from In-Fisherman don't impress me.

[Buzzby 0]

Used to do a lot of striper fishing off reefs and cliffs in Rhode Island and found that circle hooks don't get hung up on seaweed and barnacle covered submerged rocks as easily as j hooks and , when they do, it's easy to free them. They don't seem to ever need sharpening. As far as hooking fish, it appears that the fish do it by themselves more often. I have seen more and more Cape Cod guides switching to circle hooks. The Daiichi 3847 is 2 xshort, nicer than Mustaad C71SS and not stainless so lighter.

[Mokai 0]

Here are a couple I tie on circle hooks for Steelhead...

 

Shrimp

 

Cerise Lifter

 

These are my go-to patterns for Oregon Coast Steelhead..

 

 

[cheech 0]

Those look like Owner Mosquito hooks to me. I love tying sow bugs with those.

 

[Joe Hard 0]

There are lots of circle hooks, long and short shank. In fact it is law now here, from what I was told that all long liners must use circle hooks. There are a few flies I have tied in my patterns. Mostly streamers.

[Fly_guy_stu 0]

Here are some patters I tied up...

 

top (left to right) Daiwl Bach Variant, black and Peacock spider, another Bach Variant

Middle (l to r) Seal Bach, (can't remember name), Bead head Caddis

bottom (l to r) Caddis, Scud, Red Spider

 

Sorry about the poor photo (it's dull today)

 

Stu

[Frogg07 0]

Mokai, I believe those are "octopus" hooks. With a circle hook the point turns back towards the shank.

 

 

Chris

[BowFish 0]

Chris,

 

Looks like the hook point is toward the shank to me.. anymore and it they would be starting to point backwards.

Nice flies anyway... want to tie some up just looking at them.

[Frogg07 0]

Bowfish,

Check this out.

Do they really look the same to you?

 

 

Chris

[BowFish 0]

Well Frogg,

 

By putting the link picture you gave side beside to the flies above, I say the end of the barb of the cicle hook in your link points up more. The bend in the hooks look the same to me in the photos. But, Fly Guy's flies do not look like the octopus hooks either from your link. Not to be cute, but his flies look much closer to the circle hook than the Octopus.

 

Maybe because of manufacturing differences just like hook size?