Circle hooks will be required in all bait rigs in billfish tournaments, effective Jan. 1, according to new regulations from the National Marine Fisheries Service. The regulation has been expected by offshore anglers.
Controversy continues over the hooks, since many billfish anglers feel they are being unfairly targeted and insist that the majority of billfish deaths are from U.S. and foreign commercial long-liners. Long-liners use main lines 50 or more miles long with circle hook-baited droppers.
The regulations are being mandated, in part, because of low billfish levels ? blue marlin biomass at 40 percent of maximum sustainable yield and white marlin at just 12 percent. For a fishery to continue, higher survivability must occur.
Circle hooks differ from standard “J” hooks in that the shank is curved and point sharply bent to make a 90-degree angle with the hook shank. The hook is oval or circular.
Standard hooks ? “J” hooks ? look like a “J” with a straight shank and hook point parallel to the shank.
Circle hooks have both adherents and detractors.
Joe Zimmer, a Berlin, Md., contractor who excels in fly fishing for billfish, does not use circle hooks. He notes that billfish take flies differently than the way they take bait.
Zimmer, who only fishes release tournaments because of his concern with billfish conservation, is an adherent of circle hooks when bait fishing.
He acknowledges that when billfish take and turn with a bait, the circle hook slides to the corner of the mouth where fish are hooked securely without serious injury.
“Without question, they save fish,” he says.
Billfish released after taking a bait-rigged “J” hook are often deeply hooked with a mortality of at least 50 percent.
Several seasons of study by Dr. Eric Prince of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Miami and many others show that circle hooks lead to more hook-ups, equal or better catch results and far better catch-and-release survival rates.
One problem with circle hooks is a lack of industry size and shape standards.
In addition, some circle hooks are straight; others have varying degrees (4 to 15 degrees) of a side or offset bend. The federal regulations require straight hooks only, with no side offset. Any offset to the hook can negate the catch-and-release, corner-of-the-mouth-hooking conservation efforts of the straight circle hooks and lead to dying fish.
Prince notes that an offset circle hook can catch on the stomach wall and increase fish mortality.
“You feed the crabs and sharks,” he says cynically of hooks other than straight-plane circle hooks.
Lure-trolling billfish anglers are not affected by the new regulations, since circle hooks will not be required in lures.
They will be required in combination lure/bait rigs for offshore billfish trolling.
Next column: Circle hooks ? what, when and how to use them for better fishing with all fish species.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally-known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and is currently working on his 25th book. He can be reached at [email protected].
