Cakey
Well-known member
after seeing them and reading about the mechanics (google) Ive decided bad
your veiws please
your veiws please
after seeing them and reading about the mechanics (google) Ive decided bad
your veiws please
I've used them, not quite like the one in the picture but the full-on circle hook with a similar design to the long-liners original.
In theory they are great but in practice not so. Long-liners kill all they catch, nuff said.
I experimented on the river and had four bites hooking four fish, two chub and two barbel. The chub were easy to unhook and were none the worse but the barbel were a different story. Having thick, rubbery lips the hook set deep and was extremely difficult to extract. To remove the hook you have to turn it back through the arc that it has traveled in, but with such a thick lip there was little room to turn the hook and it took much longer than any other hook I have used. I immediately abandoned any further experiments and would NOT use them on carp.
I do however, use them for perch, pike and zander. As a small dead/live bait hook they are brilliant and with the mouth structure of the predator species I find them efficient and humane.
Having tried circle hooks I now look for an inturned point on my barbel hooks that will increase the hooking potential, I think that takes it far enough without running the risk of damage. The curved shank and inturned point is now standard on many carp rigs and I feel that any further distortion of the hook profile is likely to see a return to the bad old days of bent hooks.
Hope this helps.
One thing to remember is that they were originally sold in this country (as far as I am aware) as sea fishing hooks, to ensure all fish hooked were landed. As it was for sea fishing, most fish were for the table, and so it mattered less about how hard it was to remove them / damage to mouths.
While I am in no doubt that they stay it the mouth better, I don't use them as there is far more chance of damaging the fishes mouth removing the hooks (more than just the act of hooking a landing the fish.)
Ryan