10 December 2004

The Editor

NZ Fishing News

PO Box 12965

Penrose

Auckland

Circle Hook Comeback From The Past

By Herb Spannagl

Of late much has been written about circle hooks, perhaps giving the impression that this is a new hook design for recreational anglers.   Circle hooks may indeed be relatively novel for the recreational angling sector; however commercial long liners, especially those from Asian fishing nations, have used them with deadly effect for many years.   Proof that this style dates back even longer can be found in most New Zealand museums where rows of bone hooks with inward pointing tips show that this was the traditional fishing hook shape of the various Pacific island cultures.   Even the ethnic hook ornaments sold at flea markets show the same style.

I must admit when I first saw these ancient museum pieces I could not help but feel sorry for the people who relied on these weird looking tools for their sustenance.    As a trout fisher I had become so used to standard U-shaped and barbed hooks that I could only see this departure from this norm as a sign of primitive backwardness.    Now that I know better I am choking on a great big mouthful of humble pie.    I am a guy that generally sees the world in terms of problems and solutions.    To me circle hooks are right up there as a practical solution to the problem of feeding prehistoric mankind under circumstances we can barely imagine.     Since I have taken an analytical interest in this hook shape I have come to realise what a masterful display of applied thinking this design really is.    The logic carries all the way through from the limitations of the materials to the method of fishing and knowledge of how fish take the bait.     Priceless intelligence, you bet!

Before the discovery of metal, stoneage cultures used bone, wood and tough stone as the most commonly available materials for making hooks.    Their craftsmen used the bones of large mammals, birds, and fish, perhaps even humans.    Most one-piece circle hooks were made of bone.    This material is strong and hard but when thinned down it is quite brittle and for that reason ancient hooks could not have the sharp points that became possible with bronze or iron.

To my knowledge, the natives of the Pacific did not use fishing rods either and therefore lacked the long lever to strike swiftly when a fish had taken the bait.   With their crude handlines the only way they could react to a bite was to tighten up and hang on.    To overcome such handicaps they developed various shapes of circle hooks that acted more like a slowly activated snare.    This hook with its acutely inward pointing tip allows fish to snare themselves and does so very efficiently even with relatively blunt bone tipped hooks.   

It is no accident that with circle hooks most fish caught on long lines or with rod and reel are mostly lip hooked.    In my admittedly limited experience deep hooking seldom happens with species that take the bait and move off right away.    For example the other day I caught and released more than twenty big-mouthed red cod while fishing for gurnard and not one of them was hooked deep.    I think deep hooking with circle hooks is more likely with fish species that just stay put while they swallow.   During last winter I caught several spiny dogs and eels that had swallowed the bait so deeply that only the trace was visible.

Like an animal activated snare, circle hooks work on the same sneaky principle.   Snares close under increasing load as the unsuspecting animal moves off.    However, this is where the comparison ends because when pulled in a straight line, circle hooks rarely set, hence the rarity of deep hooking.    They set only when pulled around a “corner” such as a fish’s mouth.    It is generally acknowledged that the rolling action that sets the point is more certain if the pull is steady rather than fast.    Fast striking is neither necessary nor helpful.     Once the point is set the hook does the rest.    Test this for yourself with a 4/0 circle hook by slightly jamming a finger between the point and the shank.    You will see how difficult it is to remove your finger from what has now turned into a pointed trap.    From that moment on any further pull rolls the point deeper in.    To pull the hook around a corner is accomplished by the fish simply moving off after taking the bait in its mouth.    When the trace tightens up against the weight of the sinker or tight line the hook starts to move but only rolls when the shank has come out and is pulled around the outer edge of the mouth.    This is the moment when fish hook themselves.

Most circle hooks have straight eyes.   Provided that the trace is snelled to the shank and then threaded through the eye from the back this method of tying on greatly assists the hook’s rotating action.    From what I have seen all flasher rigs tied on circle hooks are snelled and threaded that way.    You can get the same hinge effect with a ledger rig by pushing the loop trace through the front of the eye first.

Watch how the hook rolls into the correct position to set the point when you pull the trace around any edge.    This is how bait-attacking fish like snapper, gurnard or kingfish become lip hooked as they move off with the bait.

To enable circle hooks to do their sneaky work the point and some of the shank must remain exposed when baiting up.    Attach the bait so that it more or less hangs down from the bend leaving the point and shank of the hook free.   This is best accomplished by only piercing the bait once skin first.    It is a bad mistake to bury the hook point in the mistaken belief that this will fool wary fish.    It may do that but it also prevents the rolling action of the hook.    Because the inward pointing hook point is covered it is highly likely that the whole bait bundle gets pulled out of the fish’s mouth without the hook engaging anywhere.

The popularity of circle hooks is rising steadily for practically all classes of sea fishing from big game fishing to dredging monsters from the abyssal depths at the edge of the continental shelf.   I use them for all my bottom fishing and achieve hook-up rates that leave my trout fishing friends green with envy.    Are there any downsides?    Surely there must be some.    Problem is, after using circle hooks for over two years I have not found any.     On the contrary the use of circle hooks greatly reduces serious injury to non-target fish.     This is an important new tool for fisheries conservation and is available to anyone at no extra cost or additional effort.   

Like the wheel, circle hooks have been invented by people who could neither read nor write and who were forced to scratch a living with the aid of tools made of stone, wood and bones.    Thousands of years later we are still using both inventions.    It just goes to show that good things endure.