Circle hooks in fly tying

[RPUERZER]

I am interested in using circle hooks for fly tying. I have used circle hooks plastic worm fishing for large mouth and it has worked very well.

Please let me know what success you have had using circle hooks and what considerations need to be made in the tying process.

thanks
Dick

 

[JackM]

Dick, I may be wrong and I apologize for not answering your question, but I cannot imagine that a circle hook would provide a whole lot of advantage over a barbless fly hook when used for fly fishing.

 

[flyfishermanj]

Dick,

I know some people who have been tying their bigger flies with circle hooks, they say they have more hook-up and the fly has better movement without the long shanks. These are all streamers they are tying, can't see any benefits of tying with circle hooks on any other type of fly though.

JH

 

[RPUERZER]

The reason i am asking about the use of circle hooks has to do with a strip strike. A strip strike would come in handy when fishing for steelhead under overhanging trees and limbs. In stead of loading the rod on the strike in and upward or side motion, you would load the rod through a strip strike. Rod would be pointed at the fish and the strip strike would take up the slack.

I was thinking of this with streamers in particular. I will tie some up and get back to the forum when i have some results that are reportable.

Thanks for your replies.
Dick

 

[tomgamber]

I've tied a few clousers with circle hooks...kind of like you describe...they work as you hoped, I think. But you don't even have to strip strike any harder than your normal streamer strip of you'll miss the fish. You just kind of adjust from stripping the fly to fighting the fish. They get hooked in the corner of the mouth in the back of the jaw.

 

[sandfly]

never set the hook with circle's, they just pull out...circles are made to set as soon as the fish bite down...I have never used the strip strike with circles...Oh yea I use them..

 

[tomgamber]

I think thats what I said...

 

[sandfly]

yea like tom said.... :-D :-D

 

[rckrego]

What hook brands do you guys use for tying on circle hooks? Has anyone ever tried tying nymphs on circle hooks?

 

I was once sent a few packages of circle hooks, to try out and after Bishop told me to "quit straighting them out in your shop vise, they're SUPPOSED to be that way!", I tried tying tube flies with them.
I like this style hook, for use on tube flies, but honestly, for the money I've not really seen a bit of difference in hook-ups/landed, over any normal style, barbless, hook.

 

[JeffK]

I played around with circle hooks down to a size 14 for a few years, and generally gave up on them. First off, the smaller ones don't work well since the gap doesn't fit around a trout's jaw. Go to a size 6 or 8 at least. That isn't so bad since you can tie a small pattern on a big hook, but midges on a circle hook are out. Occassionally I thought that it helped deep nymphing where I had trouble maintaining contact, but in general I'm not sure they hooked better than regular hooks.

A big plus of a circle hook is that you will never foul hook a fish with one (don't use ones with an offset). Now I know all fly fishermen tell me they never foul hook fish, but I do when they are stacked up some place and I drift a nymph through them. I keep my left over circle hook nymphs for places I think I have a good chance of foul hooking one.

Now catfishing and bass fishing is a different matter - I still love big circle hooks for these guys. No gut hooking when fishing bait.

 

[rckrego]

I just got a bunch of size six circle hooks for tying streamers. Any advice?

 

[Fishidiot]

I'll second JeffK's advice. I too tried 'em to avoid foul hookings but found the sizes I used were too small to embed in the fish's mouth. I use circles in saltwater all the time but the size of the hook relative to the fish's mouth is different.