The big news is that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will require circle hooks in both bait and bait-lure rigs for billfish tournaments beginning Jan. 1.
The regulation, which was set to begin this past Jan. 1, was shelved for a year after North Carolina billfishermen, who fish their rigs differently, requested time to adjust to tournament regulations. A similar proposal was made by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna but was later rescinded.
Either way, the use of circle hooks in big-money tournaments is coming, and billfishing, whether for fun or in tournaments, is a big-money event. Prize money can reach seven figures, but entry fees and the cost for charters, lodging, crew tips and lures and bait can add up. It’s a gamble.
Circle hooks are required for bait-fishing stripers during the spring catch-and-release season on the Susquehanna Flats. The circle-hook requirement ? straight line, with no offset or kirbed side bends ? is to assuage the seeming incongruity of using bait during a catch-and-release season. Natural Resources Police reported only a dozen violations this past spring (mostly warnings, not citations) of the Flats? circle-hook rule.
Because of its design, which features a sharply bent-in point, fish are less likely to swallow the hook and have it set in their vital organs. Therefore, mortality rates in catch-and-release fishing are greatly decreased.
Assuming everything is working properly, the circle hook gets caught in the corner of the fish?s mouth as it turns to swim away. The angler holds on without striking as with a traditional “J” hook. A soft-action rod and not using a traditional-hook set are the keys for successful circle-hook fishing. They allow “passive” fishing in which you don’t have to mind the rod to hook the fish.
Department of Natural Resources biologist Harley Speir, who is chairman of the circle-hook study committee for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, notes that circle hooks ? in recent tests ? end up in a fish?s jaw corner 97 percent of the time; it?s 83 percent with “J” hooks. Sailfish studies are more impressive: 85 percent were caught in the jaw with circle hooks; 27 percent with “J” hooks.
Gut-hooked sails were 46 percent with “J” hooks but only 2 percent with circle hooks.
Circle hooks mean less injury and more fish for catch-and-release, and that?s good. It means more fish to catch the next time.
“They do work,” Speir emphasized.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting and the outdoors. He can be reached at [email protected].
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