My boys are starting to fish with me more and I am anticipating some hook set/gut hook problems. Does anyone have experience with circle hooks when either slip bobbering or just dead sticking live bait? I was thinking of trying some #4 circles to help my kids with hooksets and to eliminate some gut hooks.
I have used circle hooks for late fall smallmouth bass live bait bite , they work fabulous, most every fish is lip hooked unless of course you wait “Too Long ” to set the hook, by that I mean once the pickup if felt open your bail give a 10 – 20 second count depening on how aggresive the particular specie you are after are….. 
I’ve used them w/my 9 & 5 yr olds and they’ve work great on slip bobber panfish. No experience using them on eyes. Most of the time time it’s a “hey, my bobber is gone” situation. There’s only been handful of time when they were gut-hooked. I remind them not to set the hook and just reel in steady. Knowing the idea is to have the fish swallow the hook gives you time to tell them go pick up the rod and reel n rather than dive acrosse the boat knocking everything over.
Thanks for the fast responses. I am guessing if they work for panfish and smallmouth they will work fine. Last year was frustrating for my 9 year old unless we trolled. When we drifted or jigged he would loose patience with not being able to set the hook and catch fish. Some of that is my fault, but I was thinking maybe this would be a better way, we have plenty of time to work on “hook sets” once he gets some more confidence. Hopefully this will also eliminate most of the gut hooking when he reels in a fish he didn’t even know was there.
I took my 9 year old nephew out for stream trout and some walleye fishing last year, and I used circle hooks with him. They worked great and we gut hooked very few fish. We caught a lot of trout and quite a few walleyes. I think only 3 fish or so were not hooked in the mouth.
We were slip-bobbering and lindy rigging mostly. As others have stated a nice slow rod sweep or just reeling up is the way to go. I think it’s a real nice way to take youngsters fishing who don’t have a great feel yet or the patience needed by certain types of fishing. The slip float fishing was great for him as it gave him something to look at. And showed him where fish were hanging out in the smaller water we were fishing. Now he knows to look at the rock piles and log jams and current breaks in the small streams and rivers we fish because that’s where the float disappears. 
What I have found with circle hooks for walleyes is that to achieve the best results, which again is my opinion but something to think about is to upsize your hook one size compared to octopus style. So if you run a size 8 on a crawler, try a 6, 6 for a leech, try a 4….etc…
The other thing to help with hooking up with cirlce hooks is a rod that loads up “slow” like a crankbait style rod.
A lot of people have great luck with them. Others complain about poor hook up percentages….Whats the trade off? Are you willing to risk losing fish each day knowing that your allowing fish to swim back with fresh jewelry or harming the fish by pulling it out?
As far as I know there are three studies out there done on circle hooks and to be honest, I dont think any of them help make an angler make a decision if they should or shouldnt use circle hooks.
The first study was done on panfish with standard hooks and circle hooks with gulp baits. They did not notice a difference between hooking percentages or injuries or survival rate to the fish.
The second study was with walleyes and was done where they compared octopus hooks to circle hooks with live bait. They gave each bite a 20 second count. They noted, the hooks were easily removed and low injury rate but had a 12% lower hook up percentage.
The third study was done on 5 to 13 inch bass in a tank with live bait tethered to circle and J style hooks. Where they noticed a 20% less hook up rate…
As for me, Im not going to be that guy out on 8 mile feeding that 22 inch slot fish enough line and time to get to shermans just to reel it all the way back in and not even bother taking a picture, like what they did giving each bite a 20 second count.
I’m never gonna be caught dead fishing 5 to 13 inch bass in a tank, and with live bait…but give me a nice day in January and a bucket of suckers or redtails and on the sippi and Ill have some fun…
See what I mean? Im all for helping and taking the best possible care of fish. How many bites as a walleye angler do you get a day? How many are you willing to miss to save a fish? 5? 10? If you go by the study, are you content losing 20% of the fish?
Which brings a guy to another question? Are you willing to potentially lose a personal best eye in order of trying to be a conservationist?
What about lakes with slots or no slots? Does that make a difference? If I gut hook a 22 inch eye on a lake that allows me to keep it, and I feel that fish will not survive, you bet the house Ill be enjoying that fish later on with onion rings and an EnJ Coke watching the sunset on the lake. Gut hook a 22 on mille lacs and watch her float…
Maybe Im over thinking this and maybe all Im doing is confusing the hell out of all of you.
I have personally not ever used them for panfish, however with the new gulp alive leeches, they will be getting used alot, until found otherwise.
Just food for thought…
Those studies if your interested in reading can be found doing a search for these:
Hooking Mortality of Recreational Anglers on Mille Lacs by Bruesewits and Reeves
Atlantic States Marine Commision “Circle Hooks Definition and Issues”
Circle Hook Fishing Mortality and Effectiveness on Largemouth Bass by Reiss
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